FOLIO
folio (foh-lee-oh). [fr. Latin folium “leaf”] 1.Hist. A leaf of a paper or parchment, numbered
only on the front. • A folio includes both sides of the leaf, or two pages, with the letters “a” and
“b” (or “r” and “v,” signifying recto and verso) added to show which of the two pages was
intended. 2.Hist. A certain number of words in a legal document, used as a method of
measurement. • In England, 72 or 90 words formed a folio; in the United States, 100 words. —
folio,vb.
“Folio … [a] certain number of words; in conveyances, etc., and proceedings in the High
Court amounting to seventy-two, and in parliamentary proceedings to ninety.” Ivan Horniman,
Wharton’s Law Lexicon 368 (13th ed. 1925).
- A page number on a printed book. 4. A large book the pages of which are formed by
folding a sheet of paper only once in the binding to form two leaves, making available four pages
(both sides of each leaf).[Blacks Law 8th]