Span

How to spell span

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce span

What does span mean?

1. nounThe full extent, reach, or distance between two limits, whether of space or time.
2. verbTo extend across or cover the whole extent of something.

Span in a sentence

• noun

  The bridge has a central span of two hundred metres.

• verb

  The new motorway will span the entire valley.

• noun

  Over the span of a single decade the village doubled in size.

• verb

  Her career seemed to span several very different industries.

Where does span come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Span comes from the Old English noun spann, which named the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger when the hand is stretched wide, a handy informal measure of roughly nine inches. It belongs to a broad Germanic family, sitting alongside Old High German spanna and Dutch span, and is rooted in a Germanic verb meaning 'to stretch or draw tight'. The verb sense, 'to reach or extend across', grew naturally from that idea of stretching from one point to another and was reinforced by the related verb spannan, 'to join or fasten by stretching'. Because the measuring sense was so concrete, the word broadened over time to cover any extent, whether the width of a bridge, the reach of an arch, or a stretch of time such as a lifespan. The spelling has stayed remarkably simple and stable, a short, blunt Anglo-Saxon word that has resisted any French or Latin dressing-up.

How the word is built

• span (whole root; from Old English spann, a stretch or measure between the thumb and little finger)