ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Widows and orphans

Okay kiddo, let's talk about widows and orphans.

When we read a book or a paper, we see that sometimes a small part of a paragraph or a few words get left alone on a line, this is known as widow or orphan.

A widow is when the last line of a paragraph ends with only a few words and gets separated from the rest of the paragraph. This can make the page look messy and hard to read.

An orphan is when a paragraph starts with only a few words and gets separated from the rest of the text. This can also make it difficult to read and understand what is being written.

So, to make it simpler, we can say that widows and orphans are like the left-out parts of a story or an essay. They are not quite connected with the rest of the paragraph and can create a messy look which does not look good.

That's why writers, editors, and publishers work to avoid using widows and orphans in their work to make it easier to read and to look more neat and proper.