Leading
The vertical distance between lines of text, measured baseline to baseline — line-height, in CSS terms.
Example usage
“Open up the leading on the intro paragraph — at 1.2 the lines feel stacked, not set.”
Editor’s note
Pronounced “ledding,” after the strips of lead once placed between lines of metal type. Body text wants roughly 1.4–1.6× the type size; headlines want much less — large sizes accumulate vertical space, and loose leading makes a two-line headline fall apart into two separate thoughts.