description: paragraph as definition - get straight left margin for multi-line definition

Question

With \item[keyword]explanation-that-goes-on-for-several-lines I get:

keyword this is the first line
    this is the second line

But I'd like it like this

keyword this is the first line
        this is the second line

I also tried with tabular, but then it didn't do line breaks at all!

Answer 1

You need to make sure that \labelwidth is large enough to contain the widest label in the list.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{list}{}{}
\item[keyword that is much too long] The quick brown fox jumps over
  the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick
  brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\end{list}
%
\begin{list}{}{\setlength\labelwidth{5cm}\setlength\leftmargin{5cm}\advance\leftmargin by \labelsep}
\item[keyword that is much too long] The quick brown fox jumps over
  the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick
  brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
\end{list}
\end{document}