Showing results for "span"

• past participle of spin.
• past tense form of spin.

Jump To:

• span
  span

  noun

  the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger when the hand is fully extended.
• Span.
  Span.

  abbreviation

  Spaniard.

span

¹ American  

[span] / spæn /

noun

1. the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger when the hand is fully extended.

2. a unit of length corresponding to this distance, commonly taken as 9 inches (23 centimeters).

3. a distance, amount, piece, etc., of this length or of some small extent.

   a span of lace.

4. Civil Engineering, Architecture.

   1. the distance between two supports of a structure.

   2. the structure so supported.

   3. the distance or space between two supports of a bridge.

5. the full extent, stretch, or reach of anything.

   a long span of memory.

6. Aeronautics. the distance between the wing tips of an airplane.

7. a limited space of time, as the term or period of living.

   Our span on earth is short.

8. Mathematics. the smallest subspace of a vector space that contains a given element or set of elements.

---

verb (used with object)

spanned, spanning

1. to measure by the hand with the thumb and little finger extended.

2. to encircle with the hand or hands, as the waist.

3. to extend over or across (a section of land, a river, etc.).

4. to provide with something that extends over.

   to span a river with a bridge.

5. to extend or reach over (space or time).

   a memory that spans 90 years.

6. Mathematics. to function (in a subspace of a vector space) as a span.

7. Archery. to bend (the bow) in preparation for shooting.

span ² American  

[span] / spæn /

noun

1. a pair of horses or other animals harnessed and driven together.

   Synonyms:

   team

---

span ³ American  

[span] / spæn /

verb

Archaic.

1. a simple past tense of spin.

---

Span. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. Spaniard.

2. Spanish.

---

span ¹ British  

/ spæn /

noun

1. the interval, space, or distance between two points, such as the ends of a bridge or arch

2. the complete duration or extent

   the span of his life

3. psychol the amount of material that can be processed in a single mental act

   apprehension span

   span of attention

4. short for wingspan

5. a unit of length based on the width of an expanded hand, usually taken as nine inches

---

verb

1. to stretch or extend across, over, or around

2. to provide with something that extends across or around

   to span a river with a bridge

3. to measure or cover, esp with the extended hand

Span. ² British  

abbreviation

1. Spanish

---

span ³ British  

/ spæn /

noun

1. a team of horses or oxen, esp two matched animals

---

span ⁴ British  

/ spæn /

verb

1. archaic a past tense of spin

---

span Idioms  

1. see spick and span.

---

Synonym Usage

See pair.

Etymology

Origin of span¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun spanne, sponne, spayn, Old English span(n), spon(n); cognate with German Spanne, Dutch span, Old Norse spǫnn; the verb is derivative of the noun

Origin of span²

An Americanism dating to 1760–70; from Dutch: “team (of oxen, horses)”

---

Explanation

Any distance between two things is called a span. These end points can be physical, like the span of a rope between two trees, or they can be more abstract, such as the span of time between five and six o'clock. Span comes from the Old English spann, the width of the stretched-out hand, measured from thumb to little finger. It came to refer to various other measurements, such as the distance across an arch. The first reference to a length of time came in the late 16th century, and the phrase "attention span" first appeared in 1922 (as "span of attention").

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

span Span. spanned spanning

“It’s just been absolutely brutal,” Graham said, referencing how she lost her brother and competed in three elections in a span of months.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

The fitness entrepreneur, 46, shared an AI-generated rendering of the planned residence on Instagram, revealing that it will span between 12,000 and 13,000 square feet.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026

The Villa Vie Odyssey's voyage was expected to span 3.5 years and cover nearly 150 countries, according to its website.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

In the span of two weeks, the Brewers have faced Tarik Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Rasmussen, a terrifying gauntlet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

The Hummingbird’s span was barely narrower than the ship’s corridor.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer

In Arab. it is "Takwím," whence the Span. and Port.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 by Sir Richard Francis Burton

We find other forms in Italian and Spanish, but they all go back to Ital. pietra, petra, or Span. piedra, pedra, stone, flint.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Ernest Weekley

The Span. hermano and the Port. irmāo, the regular words for brother, are from Lat. germanus, born of the same father and mother.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various

According to Prof. Skeat it is derived from the Span. filigrana, from “filar, to spin, and grano, the grain or principal fibre of the material.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere" by Various

The word came into Eng. through the Fr. chocolat or Span. chocolate from the Mex. chocolatl.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various

Reports of the freezer tampering spanned the continent from Portugal to Estonia, hitting smaller independent retailers as well as big chains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

After finding fame she was dubbed "the female Rod Stewart" for her husky vocals, and launched a career that spanned 50 years.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Stewart, the storied actor whose performances spanned comic book films, Shakespearean stage productions and sci-fi TV, died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Some were snooty, some attracted particular athletic groups, and some just spanned a spectrum of kids who enjoyed associating with each other.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026

Erastis had always said he would need a referent, something in the physical world to anchor him in the seas of light that spanned all of history.

From "The Reader" by Traci Chee

Singer and Jonathan Pollock, the firm’s two chief executives and chief investment officers, run one of the hedge-fund industry’s largest pools of capital, deployed across strategies spanning activist campaigns, buyouts, distressed-debt investing and commodities trading.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

No10 North will share the city centre building with other government departments spanning business, education, local government and the Cabinet Office.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

Cases have likewise been detected in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, with the World Health Organization warning that Africa faces a "complex" task to contain an outbreak spanning the east, west and centre of the continent.

From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026

Angela Gonzales-Torres, 31, is seizing on Gomez’s issues in the race to represent California’s 34th Congressional District, a Latino-majority territory spanning Koreatown, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Glassell Park and adjacent neighborhoods.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

Past that, an old trestle bridge spanning a gorge.

From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• interval
• length
• period
• space
• spell
• stretch
• term

---