span
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span¹
- /spæn/ US, UK
- /span/ British, Northern England, Scotland
- /spæːn/ Australia
- /spɛn/ New Zealand
Rhymes with -æn
Where it comes from
From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”).
Cognate with Dutch span, spanne, German Spanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably from Old English ġespan, ġespann (“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. Cognate with Dutch gespan, German Gespann.
noun spans
- The full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length.
- Any of various traditional units of length approximating this distance, especially the English handspan of 9 inches forming ⅛ fathom and equivalent to 22.86 cm. The truth is that the charm of her body made up for her other faults: she measured less than 7 spans¹ from her feet to the top of her head, and her back, which weighed somewhat heavily on her, forced her to look down at the ground more than she would have wished. [...] 1. A span is approximately eig
- A small space or a brief portion of time. He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.
- A portion of something by length; a subsequence. For example, in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Word, each span of text can have a style that defines key characteristics about the text: • What font it uses • Whether it's normal, bolded, italicized, […]
- The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports. The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and two spans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.
- The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
- A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
- A pair of horses or other animals driven or sold together; usually, such a pair of horses usually being similar in color, form, and action. A span of water buffalo, terrified out of their usual lethargy by sight of the plane, stampeded, pursued by a swearing and scarcely less terrified Hindu farmer.
- The space of all linear combinations of vectors within a set.
- The time required to execute a parallel algorithm on an infinite number of processors, i.e. the shortest distance across a directed acyclic graph representing the computation steps. We use the term span (also called depth, or dependence depth) to refer to the number of parallel steps assuming an unbounded number of processors.
- wingspan of a plane or bird
span²
- /spæn/ US, UK
- /spæːn/ Australia
Rhymes with -æn
Where it comes from
From Middle English spannen, from Old English spannan, from Proto-Germanic *spannaną (“to stretch, span”). Cognate with German spannen, Dutch spannen.
verb spans · spanning · spanned
- To extend across (a gap or space between two sides). The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.
- To cover or extend over (an area or distance). The parking lot spans three acres.
- To extend through (a period of time). The novel spans three centuries.
- To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object. to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder
- To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
- To be matched, as horses.
- To fetter, as a horse; to hobble. We spanned the dogs high up a corrie to the south of the ridge […]
span³
- /spæn/ Australia, US, UK
Rhymes with -æn
Where it comes from
From Middle English span, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spann, first and third person singular preterit indicative of Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”).
verb spun
- simple past of spin But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan, VVho was then a Gentleman?
Span⁴
Where it comes from
* As a Slovene surname, from župan (“head of a district”), from župa (“district”); compare Zupan.
* As a German surname, variant of Spahn; also Spann.
* As a Jewish surname from Span (“chip”) (probably through Yiddish).
proper noun Spans
- A surname.
SPAN⁵
proper noun
- Acronym of Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network
- Acronym of Switched Port Analyzer, a Cisco technology.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: brace, sweep, straddle, yoke, twain, duad, twosome, dyad, bridge, couple, pair, traverse, cross, distich, couplet, duo
Translations
Every language
noun length between supports
| Русский | пролёт proljót |
|---|
noun Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand
| Español | palmo, cuarta |
|---|---|
| Kiswahili | shibiri |
| Português | palmo |
| Français | empan |
| Deutsch | Spanne |
| Italiano | spanna |
| Русский | пядь pjadʹ |
| العربية | شِبْر šibr |
| עברית | זֶרֶת zéret |
noun small space or a brief portion of time
| Português | período |
|---|---|
| Italiano | periodo, lasso di tempo |
| Русский | пери́од períod |
noun spread between supports
| Español | luz |
|---|---|
| Português | vão |
| Italiano | luce, campata, portata |
| Русский | пролёт proljót |
noun mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something
| Português | espaço gerado |
|---|---|
| Русский | линейная оболочка linejnaja oboločka |
verb to extend through the distance between or across
| Español | extenderse sobre, abarcar, abracar |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 跨ぐ matagu |
| Português | abranger |
| Français | couvrir, chevaucher |
| Deutsch | überspannen, einnehmen |
| Italiano | coprire |
| Русский | раскидываться raskidyvatʹsja, растягиваться rastjagivatʹsja |
verb to cover or extend over an area or distance
| Español | extenderse, extenderse por (todo), extenderse a lo largo de, abarcar, abracar |
|---|
verb to extend through a period of time
| Español | abarcar, abracar, extenderse (durante), extenderse (a lo largo de) |
|---|---|
| Português | abranger |
| Français | couvrir, s'étendre |
verb mathematics: to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations
| Deutsch | aufspannen |
|---|
Talk about this word "span." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/span. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. span. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/span "span." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/span.Cite this
@misc{span_2026,
title = {span},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/span},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
