View source for The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

{{Short description|Sentence containing all letters of the English alphabet}}
[[File: MetalTypeZoomIn.JPG|thumb|The phrase shown in metal moveable type, used in printing presses (image reversed for readability)]]

<!--Editors: Please don't change this phrase - as the article notes, the most common variant begins with "The" rather than "A".  Thank you.-->
"'''The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'''" is an English-language [[pangram]]{{snd}} a [[sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] that contains all the letters of the [[alphabet]]. The phrase is commonly used for [[Touch typing|touch-typing]] practice, testing [[typewriter]]s and [[computer keyboard]]s, displaying examples of [[font]]s, and other applications involving text where the use of all letters in the alphabet is desired.

==History==
[[File: Boston Journal 1885-02-09 (quick brown fox).png|thumb|upright=1.3|Item from the February 9, 1885, edition of ''The Boston Journal'' mentioning the phrase "A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."]]
The earliest known appearance of the phrase was in ''[[The Boston Journal]]''. In an article titled "Current Notes" in the February 9, 1885, edition, the phrase is mentioned as a good practice [[sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] for writing students: "A favorite copy set by writing teachers for their pupils is the following, because it contains every letter of the alphabet: '<!--Don't change this-->A<!--Don't change this--> quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.{{' "}}<ref>{{cite news|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_Journal_1885-02-10.pdf|title=Current Notes|work=Boston Journal|location=Boston, Massachusetts|date=February 10, 1885|edition=morning|page=1}}</ref> Dozens of other newspapers published the phrase over the next few months, all using the version of the sentence starting with "A" rather than "The".<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Search for 'quick brown fox'|url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22quick+brown+fox%22&dr_year=1885-1885&offset=30|website=Newspapers.com|access-date=8 November 2016}}</ref> The earliest known use of the phrase starting with "The" is from the 1888 book ''Illustrative Shorthand'' by Linda Bronson.<ref>{{cite book|title=Illustrative Shorthand|first=Linda Pennington|last=Bronson|year=1888|publisher=Cal. Label & Maccabe Litho. Co.|location=San Francisco|url=https://archive.org/details/illustrativeshor00salmrich|page=[https://archive.org/details/illustrativeshor00salmrich/page/76 76]}}</ref> The modern form (starting with "The") became more common even though it is slightly longer than the original (starting with "A").

A 1908 edition of the ''[[Los Angeles Herald Sunday Magazine]]'' records that when the ''[[New York Herald]]'' was equipping an office with typewriters "a few years ago", staff found that the common practice sentence of "now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party" did not familiarize typists with the entire alphabet, and ran onto two lines in a newspaper column. They write that a staff member named Arthur F. Curtis invented the "quick brown fox" pangram to address this.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Los Angeles Herald Sunday Magazine|first=|date=1908-11-08|title=Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, November 08, 1908, Image 51|pages=5|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042462/1908-11-08/ed-1/seq-51/|access-date=2021-11-16}}</ref>

[[File:Fox Jumping Over A Dog in Signaling for Boys.png|thumb|right|Pictorial depiction of the pangram from ''[[Scouting for Boys]]'' (1908)<ref name="sfb">{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Baden-Powell|author-link=Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|title=Scouting for Boys|location=London|publisher=Pearson|year=1908|isbn=0-665-98794-3|url=http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/yarns00-28.pdf|page=76}}</ref>]]
As the use of typewriters grew in the late 19th century, the phrase began appearing in typing lesson books as a practice sentence. Early examples include  ''How to Become Expert in Typewriting: A Complete Instructor Designed Especially for the Remington Typewriter'' (1890),<ref>{{cite book|title=How to Become Expert in Typewriting|first=Lovisa Ellen|last=Barnes|year=1890|url=https://archive.org/details/howtobecomeexpe00barngoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/howtobecomeexpe00barngoog/page/n36 12]|publisher=A.J. Barnes}}</ref> and ''Typewriting Instructor and Stenographer's Hand-book'' (1892). By the turn of the 20th century, the phrase had become widely known. In the January 10, 1903, issue of ''Pitman's Phonetic Journal'', it is referred to as "the well known memorized typing line embracing all the letters of the alphabet".<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Fox Typewriter|journal=Pitman's Phonetic Journal|date=January 10, 1903|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D64UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA24}}</ref> [[Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|Robert Baden-Powell]]'s book ''[[Scouting for Boys]]'' (1908) uses the phrase as a practice sentence for signaling.<ref name="sfb">{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Baden-Powell|author-link=Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell|title=Scouting for Boys|location=London|publisher=Pearson|year=1908|isbn=0-665-98794-3|url=http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/yarns00-28.pdf|page=76}}</ref>

The first message sent on the [[Moscow–Washington hotline]] on August 30, 1963, was the test phrase "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG'S BACK 1234567890".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/hotline/index.htm|title=Washington Moscow Hotline|publisher=Cryptomuseum.com|access-date=2013-09-21}}</ref> Later, during testing, the Russian translators sent a message asking their American counterparts, "What does it mean when your people say 'The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog'?"<ref>{{cite book|last=Rusk|first=Dean|title=As I Saw It: A Secretary of State's Memoirs|year=1991|publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd.|location=London|page=225}}</ref>

During the 20th century, technicians tested typewriters and [[teleprinter]]s by typing the sentence.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Wobbe|last=Vegter|title=Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot|journal=ThemNews|date=June 2007|volume=8|issue=2|url=http://wvegter.hivemind.net/abacus/CyberHeroes/Baudot.htm|access-date=2013-09-21}}</ref>

It is the sentence used in the annual Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Competition, a [[cursive|cursive writing]] competition which has been held in the U.S. since 1991.<ref>{{cite web | title=Students Compete To See Who Has The Best Cursive Writing | website=NPR.org | date=2021-05-28 | url=https://www.npr.org/2021/05/28/1001151520/students-compete-to-see-who-has-the-best-cursive-writing | access-date=2021-06-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=About the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest |url=https://www.zaner-bloser.com/national-handwriting-contest/about-contest.php |website=www.zaner-bloser.com |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref>

==Computer usage==
[[File:Ceefax test screenshot 1972.jpg|thumb|The phrase being used in a [[BBC]] [[Ceefax]] test from 1972.]]
[[File:Kfontview.png|thumb|The phrase used to preview a computer typeface]]
In the age of computers, this pangram is commonly used to display font samples and for testing [[computer keyboard]]s. In [[cryptography]], it is commonly used as a test vector for hash and encryption algorithms to verify their implementation, as well as to ensure alphabetic character set compatibility.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

[[Microsoft Word]] has a command to auto-type the sentence, in versions up to Word 2003, using the command {{Code|code==rand()}}, and in Microsoft Office Word 2007 and later using the command {{Code|code==rand.old()}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/212251|title=kb212251 Microsoft support|publisher=Support.microsoft.com|date=2011-09-18|access-date=2013-09-21|archive-date=2012-07-15|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715215405/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/212251|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Cultural references==

Numerous references to the phrase have occurred in movies, television, books, video games, advertising, websites, and graphic arts. 
	 
The [[lipogram]]matic novel ''[[Ella Minnow Pea]]'' by [[Mark Dunn]] is built entirely around the "quick brown fox" pangram and its inventor. It depicts a fictional island off the [[South Carolina]] coast that idealizes the pangram, chronicling the effects on literature and social structure as various letters are banned from daily use by government dictum.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=wikipedia&q=isbn%3A0385722435 Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, by Mark Dunn, Anchor, 2001], {{ISBN|0385722435}}</ref>

==Other pangrams==
{{Main|Pangram}}
With 35 letters, this is not the shortest pangram. Shorter examples include:

*"Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex." (28 letters)
*"Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow." (29 letters)
*"How vexingly quick daft zebras jump!" (30 letters)
*"Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs." (32 letters)

If abbreviations and non-dictionary words are allowed, it is possible to create a perfect pangram that uses each letter only once, such as "Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx".

==See also==
* [[Filler text]]
** {{annotated link|Etaoin shrdlu}}
** {{annotated link|Lorem ipsum}}
* {{annotated link|Thousand Character Classic}}
* {{annotated link|Iroha}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog}}{{Wiktionary|the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog}}

{{Standard test item|state=collapsed}}
{{Typewriter}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog}}
[[Category:English phrases]]
[[Category:Filler text]]
[[Category:Pangrams]]
[[Category:Typography]]
[[Category:1880s neologisms]]