Definition of "span"

span¹

/spæn/

noun
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.
3. (by extension) A small space or a brief portion of time.
  Quotations
  "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
  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, […], 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.
  Quotations
  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. (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.
  Quotations
  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. (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.
9. (mathematics) The space of all linear combinations of vectors within a set.
10. (computing) 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.
  Quotations
  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
11. wingspan of a plane or bird

span²

/spæn/

verb
third-person singular simple present spans, present participle spanning, simple past and past participle spanned
1. (transitive) To extend through the distance between or across.
  Quotations
  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, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company
  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 extend through (a time period).
3. (transitive) To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
  Quotations
  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, […], Isaiah 48:13, column 2
4. (mathematics) To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
5. (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
6. (transitive) To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.

span³

/spæn/

verb
1. (dated, now uncommon) simple past of spin
  Quotations
  But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,VVho was then a Gentleman?
  1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], 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., 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 March 2016

Definition of "span"

span1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

span2

verb

Quotations

Quotations

span3

verb

Quotations

span¹

span²

span³