The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural picas
(pathology, usually uncountable) A disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances, such as chalk, clay, dirt, ice, or sand. quotations
The three most common nonfood picas were eating of strings and rags; feces, vomit, and urine; and paper, cigarettes, and soil.
1986, George S Baroff, Mental retardation: nature, cause, and management
(countable) A magpie. examples
(typography, printing, uncountable) A size of type between small pica and English, now standardized as 12-point. quotations examples
I had been at Baldwin's before dinner in consequence of a letter from him which showed me that, by using a pica instead of an English letter in printing my book, I might comprise it within such a number of sheets as a guinea-volume should contain […] .
1790, James Boswell, edited by Danziger & Brady, Boswell: The Great Biographer, Yale, published 1989, page 30
(typography, uncountable, usually with qualifier) A font of this size. examples
(typography, countable) A unit of length equivalent to 12 points, officially 35⁄83 cm (0.166 in) after 1886 but now (computing) 1⁄6 in. examples
(uncommon, ecclesiastical) A pie or directory: the book directing Roman Catholic observance of saints' days and other feasts under various calendars. examples
plural picas
Archaic form of pika (“small lagomorph”). quotations examples
Most travellers in the Himalaya are familiar with the pretty little Rodents, known as picas, tailless hares, or mouse-hares, which may be seen in the higher regions […]
1895, Richard Lydekker, The Royal Natural History, volume 3, page 190