span

plural spans

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.

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   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. broadlyA small space or a brief portion of time.

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

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   "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

   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

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

   1699, George Farquhar, The Constant Couple

   The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans,

   2007, John Zerzan, Silence

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. architectureThe 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. architectureThe length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
7. nauticalA 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. CanadaUScollectiveA pair of horses or other animals driven or sold together; usually, such a pair of horses usually being similar in color, form, and action.

   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

   5 more examples

   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 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

   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

   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. mathematicsThe space of all linear combinations of vectors within a set.
10. computingThe 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

present singular third person spans · participle present spanning · participle past spanned · past spanned

1. transitiveTo extend across (a gap or space between two sides).

   The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.

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   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

   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. transitiveTo cover or extend over (an area or distance).

   The parking lot spans three acres.

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   The forest spans the entire valley.

3. transitiveTo extend through (a period of time).

   The novel spans three centuries.

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   His career spanned five decades.

4. transitiveTo measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.

   to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder

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   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

5. mathematicsTo generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
6. USdatedintransitiveTo be matched, as horses.
7. transitiveTo 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

alternative common spun

1. datedpastuncommonsimple past 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

   2 more examples

   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

plural Spans

1. A surname.

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Suicide Prevention Advocacy Network.
2. abbreviationacronymcomputingAcronym of Switched Port Analyzer, a Cisco technology.