Span

/spæn/ · noun

Meaning

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..

Definitions by Sense

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.
3. (by extension) A small space or a brief portion of time.
4. A portion of something by length; a subsequence.
5. (architecture, construction) The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
6. (architecture, construction) The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
7. (nautical) 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. (US, Canada) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.

Example Sentences

He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.

"Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain top by a span in thickness?"

Yet not to Earth's contracted Span, Thy Goodneſs let me bound; […]

Life's but a span; I'll every inch enjoy.

The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans,

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 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.

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.

Synonyms for span

Antonyms for span

Related Words

Word Forms

• spans
• spanning
• spanned
• spun

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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