Dictionary

span en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /spɛn/ (New-Zealand)
• (US) audio
• /spæn/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /spæːn/ (Australia)
• /span/ (British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend-der. Proto-Germanic *spannō Old English spann Middle English spanne English span 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.

Meanings

1. 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.
2. 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 eight inches. Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 109:
3. (broadly) A small space or a brief portion of time.
   • He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.
   • The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans, 2007, John Zerzan, Silence:
   • Yet not to Earth's contracted Span, Thy Goodneſs let me bound; […] 1738, [Alexander Pope], “Stanza VI”, in The Universal Prayer. […], London [actually Edinburgh]: […] [Thomas Ruddiman] for R[obert] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 5:
   • "Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain top by a span in thickness?" 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
   • Life's but a span; I'll every inch enjoy. 1699, George Farquhar, The Constant Couple:
4. 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, […] 2004, Robert Harris, Robert Warner, The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, page 759:
5. 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. 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:
6. The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
7. 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.
8. (Canada, US, collective) 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. 2022, Lester Bernard Dent, The Thousand-Headed Man: A Doc Savage Adventure, DigiCat:
   • a span of horses costing two hundred dollars will last ten years, and then be worthless 1853, John Lauris Blake, The Farmer's Every-day Book, Or, Sketches of Social Life in the Country, Derby and Miller:
   • This was an action for a breach of warranty upon the sale of a span of horses. 1872, Marcus D. Hanover, A Practical Treatise on the Law of Horses, Embracing the Law of Bargain, Sale, and Warranty of Horses and Other Live Stock, R. Clarke & Company, page 111:
   • A span of goats harnessed to a cart is second only to ponies, in a child's estimation; therefore, the beginning of this lesson may well be a span of goats thus employed. 2016, Anna Botsford Comstock, Handbook of Nature Study, Ravenio Books:
   • When good oxen are worth 80 or 85 dollars a yoke, a span of horses at the same comparative rate of value will cost from $180 to $200. 1837 November 11, Franklin Farmer, volumes 1-2, F.D. Pettit, page 82:
   • Float, covered with pieces of woolen cloth from the mill, decorated with flags and bunting, drawn by a span of white horses and a span of black ones covered with white woolen blankets 1913 December, Nancy Darling, The Vermonter, volumes 18-19, Charles S. Forbes, page 258:
9. The space of all linear combinations of vectors within a set.
10. 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. 2017, Ananya Kumar, Guy E. Blelloch, Robert Harper, “Parallel Functional Arrays”, in ACM SIGPLAN Notices, →DOI:
11. wingspan of a plane or bird

Forms

Deriveds

spanwise · linear span · Spansule · inspan · wakespan · palmspan · arm span · endspan · drawspan · clearspan · span block · outspan · eyespan · subspan · cospan · span counter · midspan · lifespan · wingspan · supraspan · memory span · gerospan · spanning → multi- · makespan · tetraspan · spannable · span of control · mainspan · spick-and-span · spanned → unspanned · lifting span · long-span · spanner · forspan · affine span · spank · spanless · span roof · linkspan · overspanning · span shackle · attention span · time-span reduction · life span · healthspan · overspan · handspan · timespan · widespan · span iron · legspan · knot span · spanworm

Relateds

spank · yepsen · spang · chord

Translations (99)

ru пери́од (small space or a brief portion of time) · nl span (pair of horses or other animals) · hu kiterjedés (small space or a brief portion of time) · mi tāwhana (spread between supports) · fi vaaksa (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · uk перекриття́ (length between supports) · bg кратко време (small space or a brief portion of time) · bg просвет (spread between supports) · bg педя (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · it spanna (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu szakasz (small space or a brief portion of time) · fi jänneväli (spread between supports) · nb spennvidde (spread between supports) · ta சாண் (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · sv spann (length between supports) · fa وجب (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · tl sandamak (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · es luz (spread between supports) · he זֶרֶת (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ru пролёт (spread between supports) · fi viritelmä (mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something) · hu fesztávolság (length between supports) · pt palmo (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · sv spann (pair of horses or other animals) · hu fesztáv (spread between supports) · it campata (spread between supports) · wa aspagne (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · it lasso di tempo (small space or a brief portion of time) · sw shibiri (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu ívnyílás (spread between supports) · ga réise (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ckb بست (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · de Spanne (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · uk перекриття́ (spread between supports) · es palmo (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · es cuarta (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · mi tāwhana (length between supports) · ky сөөм (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · gl palmo (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · pt período (small space or a brief portion of time) · ary شبر (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · it periodo (small space or a brief portion of time) · alt сӧӧм (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ba ҡарыш (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · pl piędź (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu arasz (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · bg късо разстояние (small space or a brief portion of time) · fo sponn (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu fogat (pair of horses or other animals) · pl przęsło (spread between supports) · uk п'ядь (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · grc σπιθαμή (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · fr empan (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · tl damak (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · fi jänneväli (length between supports) · fa بدست (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ca pam (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · mi whanga (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · cs píď (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu pár (pair of horses or other animals) · da spand (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · nn spennvidd (spread between supports) · hu leforgás (small space or a brief portion of time) · txb raso (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · tr karış (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · it luce (spread between supports) · ca període (small space or a brief portion of time) · fi vaaksa (small space or a brief portion of time) · ota قارش (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · cs rozpětí (spread between supports) · ru пролёт (length between supports) · hu köz (small space or a brief portion of time) · fi hetki (small space or a brief portion of time) · nn spennvidde (spread between supports) · uk пері́од (small space or a brief portion of time) · cy sban (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · bg впряг (pair of horses or other animals) · uga 𐎜𐎉 (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ru пядь (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hy թիզ (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ta இடைவெளி (small space or a brief portion of time) · pt espaço gerado (mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something) · sv spann (mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something) · hu szárnytávolság (length between supports) · fi parivaljakko (pair of horses or other animals) · sv spann (spread between supports) · ga seal (small space or a brief portion of time) · ky карыш (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · az aşırım (spread between supports) · pt vão (spread between supports) · cs rozpon (spread between supports) · kk сүйем (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · alt карыш (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu táv (small space or a brief portion of time) · te జాన (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · ar شِبْر (Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand) · hu időtartam (small space or a brief portion of time) · it portata (spread between supports) · ru линейная оболочка (mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something)

span en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /spæn/ (General-American, Received-Pronunciation)
• /spæːn/ (Australia)

Etymology

From Middle English spannen, from Old English spannan, from Proto-Germanic *spannaną (“to stretch, span”). Cognate with German spannen, Dutch spannen.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To extend across (a gap or space between two sides).
   • The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry. 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:
   • The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.
   • Completed in 1823, Gaunless Bridge was designed by George Stephenson to span the River Gaunless in West Auckland, forming part of a line serving Witton Park Colliery. 2023 March 8, “Network News: Grant for repairs at Gaunless Bridge”, in RAIL, number 978, page 9:
2. (transitive) To cover or extend over (an area or distance).
   • The forest spans the entire valley.
   • The parking lot spans three acres.
3. (transitive) To extend through (a period of time).
   • His career spanned five decades.
   • The novel spans three centuries.
4. (transitive) To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
   • Mine hand alſo hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath ſpanned the heauens: when I call vnto them, they ſtand vp together. 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 48:13, column 2:
   • to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder
5. To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
6. (US, dated, intransitive) To be matched, as horses.
7. (transitive) To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.
   • We spanned the dogs high up a corrie to the south of the ridge […] 1972, Mountain, numbers 20-24, page 22:

Forms

Translations (54)

lt apim̃ti (to extend through the distance between or across) · az uzanmaq (to extend through the distance between or across) · es extenderse por (todo) (to cover or extend over an area or distance) · mi tīpae (to extend through the distance between or across) · fi kulkea (to extend through the distance between or across) · pt abranger (to extend through a period of time) · pl obejmować (to extend through a period of time) · uk охопи́ти (to extend through the distance between or across) · fr couvrir (to extend through the distance between or across) · fr couvrir (to extend through a period of time) · es abarcar (to cover or extend over an area or distance) · pl mieć zasięg (to extend through a period of time) · es abracar (to extend through the distance between or across) · bg обхващам (to extend through a period of time) · tr karışlamak (to measure by the span of the hand) · fr chevaucher (to extend through the distance between or across) · es extenderse (a lo largo de) (to extend through a period of time) · ru раскидываться (to extend through the distance between or across) · pl rozciągać się (to extend through a period of time) · es extenderse sobre (to extend through the distance between or across) · es extenderse (durante) (to extend through a period of time) · ru растягиваться (to extend through the distance between or across) · ja 跨ぐ (to extend through the distance between or across) · es abarcar (to extend through a period of time) · hu felölel (to extend through a period of time) · sv spänna upp (mathematics: to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations) · sv sträcka sig över (to extend through a period of time) · ota قارشلامق (to measure by the span of the hand) · uk охо́плювати (to extend through the distance between or across) · fr s'étendre (to extend through a period of time) · mi tūhāngai (to extend through the distance between or across) · hu áthidal (to extend through the distance between or across) · sv spänna över (to extend through a period of time) · es extenderse a lo largo de (to cover or extend over an area or distance) · uk охо́плювати (to extend through a period of time) · es abracar (to cover or extend over an area or distance) · es abarcar (to extend through the distance between or across) · pt abranger (to extend through the distance between or across) · hu átível (to extend through the distance between or across) · es extenderse (to cover or extend over an area or distance) · sv spänna över (to extend through the distance between or across) · de aufspannen (mathematics: to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations) · it coprire (to extend through the distance between or across) · ta நீடு (to extend through the distance between or across) · de überspannen (to extend through the distance between or across) · sk preklenúť (to extend through the distance between or across) · fi kattaa (to extend through a period of time) · ta நீள் (to extend through the distance between or across) · sv sträcka sig över (to extend through the distance between or across) · mhr авалташ (to extend through the distance between or across) · de einnehmen (to extend through the distance between or across) · bg обхващам (to extend through the distance between or across) · es abracar (to extend through a period of time) · uk охопи́ти (to extend through a period of time)

span en · VERB · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• /spæn/ (Australia, General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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”).

Meanings

1. (dated, form-of, past, uncommon) simple past of spin
   form of spin
   • But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan, VVho was then a Gentleman? 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act I:
   • So they went in to where Gudruda sat spinning in the hall, singing as she span. 1891, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “How Hall of Lithdale Took Tidings to Iceland”, in Eric Brighteyes, 2nd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 204:
   • Five spectators remained in critical condition on Monday, a day after they were injured when a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people, local officials said. 2014 September 29, Reuters, “Five spectators in critical condition following stunt truck accident”, in Irish Independent, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2016:

Forms

Deriveds

wheelspan

Relateds

span-new