wingspan
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wingspan
Explanation
To find a bird's wingspan, you need to measure the distance from the tip of one outstretched wing to the other. An eagle has a much larger wingspan than a sparrow. Anything with two wings has a wingspan, which is one way to get a sense of its size. So birds and butterflies can be measured for wingspan, but so can airplanes. A flying squirrel can have a wingspan of over a foot, and some hummingbirds have wingspans that are barely over an inch. Sports commentators often mention the wingspan of basketball players — in this case, they're referring to the distance between a player's outstretched fingertips.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962, the terminal has a dramatic, glass-walled facade with a sloping roofline that recalls a wingspan.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
At 6.9m long, with a wingspan of 8.6m, it is designed for touring, aerial photography and recreational aviation.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
"The piece of its upper arm bone that we have is about 4 inches long, so the entire dinosaur probably had something like a four-foot wingspan, around the size of a barn owl."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
When opponents are lucky enough to launch the ball over his 8-foot wingspan, they invariably miss.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Captain Snow stood hugely tall with an incredible wingspan.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Tens of thousands of these birds, with their 6-foot wingspans, take off and head south for the winter, their plangent trumpeting drowning out all other sounds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Because of cicadas' larger size -- with wingspans that can rival a small hummingbird's -- they use less energy to expel pee in jets.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2024
From lappet-faced vultures with nine-foot wingspans to long-crested eagles with spiky mohawks, Africa’s raptors are undeniably spectacular birds.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 4, 2024
The birds can have wingspans of up to 8 feet and generally weigh 8 to 14 pounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2023
Spire vultures are massive birds with five-inch talons and wingspans that clear twenty feet.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
