Confusing Terms

Is it an orphan or a widow?

orphan … a line of text that begins a paragraph that appears alone on the bottom of the page.
How to remember it:
The orphan is a first line — do you got them? —
alone and lonely at the page’s bottom.

widow … a line of text or a word at the end of a paragraph that falls onto the first line of the next page.
How to remember it:
“The widow is a last line or a last word
that spills over to the next page — how absurd!”

From Wikipedia:

Widow
A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, a widow is “alone at the top” (of the family tree but, in this case, of the page).

Orphan
A paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Mnemonically, an orphan is “alone at the bottom” (of the family tree but, in this case, of the page).

Alternately, a word, part of a word, or very short line that appears by itself at the end of a paragraph. Mnemonically still “alone at the bottom”, just this time at the bottom of a paragraph. Orphans of this type give the impression of too much white space between paragraphs.

A common mnemonic is “An orphan has no past; a widow has no future”[4] or “An orphan is left behind, whereas a widow must go on alone”.

Another way to think is that orphaned lines appear at the “birth” (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the “death” (end) of paragraphs. “An orphan is alone from the beginning; a widow is alone at the end,” or “An orphan starts alone, a widow ends alone.”