diff --git a/web/src/app/Icon.tsx b/web/src/app/Icon.tsx
index 298d7761..5270ce26 100644
--- a/web/src/app/Icon.tsx
+++ b/web/src/app/Icon.tsx
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 /** Thin wrapper around a Material Icons ligature glyph (font loaded in index.html).
  *  Always `aria-hidden` -- the glyph's DOM text is the icon's internal ligature name (e.g.
  *  "arrow_back_ios_new"), never something a screen reader should announce. An icon-only
- *  interactive element (button/link with no visible text) must set its own `aria-label`. */
+ *  interactive element (button/link with no visible text) must set its own `aria-label`.
+ *
+ *  Deliberately `im-icon`, NOT Google Fonts' own `.material-icons` class -- see index.css's own
+ *  comment on that rule for why: Google's stylesheet ships that class completely unlayered, which
+ *  under CSS Cascade Layers always outranks Tailwind's layered utilities regardless of specificity
+ *  or source order, silently ignoring every `text-[Npx]` size override across the whole app. */
 export function Icon({ name, className = '', style }: { name: string; className?: string; style?: React.CSSProperties }) {
   return (
-    <i aria-hidden="true" className={`material-icons select-none ${className}`} style={style}>
+    <i aria-hidden="true" className={`im-icon select-none ${className}`} style={style}>
       {name}
     </i>
   );
diff --git a/web/src/index.css b/web/src/index.css
index 8d46b764..292e021f 100644
--- a/web/src/index.css
+++ b/web/src/index.css
@@ -1,5 +1,35 @@
 @import "tailwindcss";
 
+/*
+ * Material Icons' OWN Google Fonts stylesheet (index.html's `<link>`) ships its `.material-icons`
+ * class completely unlayered -- plain CSS, no `@layer`. Tailwind v4 (the `@import` above) puts every
+ * one of its own utilities inside `@layer utilities`. Per the CSS Cascade Layers spec, ANY unlayered
+ * declaration beats EVERY layered one for the same property on the same element, regardless of
+ * selector specificity or which stylesheet loads later in the document -- confirmed live: an
+ * `<Icon className="text-[14px]">` computed to `font-size: 24px` regardless of the requested size,
+ * every time, because Google's unlayered rule was always winning over Tailwind's layered
+ * `.text-\[14px\]` utility. Icon.tsx uses its own `im-icon` class (not `.material-icons`) specifically
+ * so Google's competing rule never matches these elements at all -- this is the same visual default
+ * (24px, line-height 1, etc., copied 1:1 from Google's own stylesheet), just declared inside `@layer
+ * base` so Tailwind's `@layer utilities` (which Tailwind itself registers after `base`) can actually
+ * override it, the way every call site sizing an icon via `text-[Npx]` already assumed it could.
+ */
+@layer base {
+  .im-icon {
+    font-family: 'Material Icons';
+    font-weight: normal;
+    font-style: normal;
+    font-size: 24px;
+    line-height: 1;
+    letter-spacing: normal;
+    text-transform: none;
+    display: inline-block;
+    white-space: nowrap;
+    word-wrap: normal;
+    direction: ltr;
+  }
+}
+
 /*
  * Design tokens ported 1:1 from docs/design_handoff_meetingim_web/README.md's "Design Tokens"
  * section. Values are exact hex/px from the design handoff, not semantic guesses -- keep them in