From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishserifser‧if /ˈserɪf/ noun [countable] TCNa short flat line at the top or bottom of some printed letters → sans serif
Examples from the Corpus
serif• Firstly, the text will generally look better in a serif face, especially if there is a lot of it.• The variation between the two creates interest and, anyway, serif faces are easier to read in large quantities.• The sentence I had just written in a staid serif typeface suddenly was pushed leeward.• The buttons for each floor were round and prominent, like discoloured eyeballs, with serif numbers as pupils.Origin serif (1800-1900) Probably from Dutch schreef “line”, from Middle Dutch schriven “to write” 