Link Centre Dictionary

span

UK/span/ US/spæn/ fairly common us
verb (1) noun (6)

verb

1.

to cover or extend over an area or time period

  • “Rivers traverse the valley floor”
  • “The parking lot spans 3 acres”
  • “The novel spans three centuries”
Synonyms

noun

1.

the complete duration of something

  • “the job was finished in the span of an hour”
2.

the distance or interval between two points

3.
4.

a unit of length based on the width of the expanded human hand (usually taken as 9 inches)

5.

a structure that allows people or vehicles to cross an obstacle such as a river or canal or railway etc.

Synonyms
6.

the act of sitting or standing astride

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”).

Phrases

  • arm span
  • attention span
  • knot span
  • life span
  • lifting span
  • linear span
  • memory span
  • span block

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.