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Spanne

German, noun

Spanne is spelled S-P-A-N-N-E (6 letters) and appears 1.7 times per million words in written German, the 27,669th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Spanne is a German feminine noun meaning “span (space between the tips of the thumb and little finger)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). In lower case, spanne is a different word: “first-person singular present”. On this page, spänne is a different word: “first/third-person singular subjunctive II of spinnen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “Zeitspanne; (kurzer) Zeitraum, der sich zwischen zwei Zeitpunkten erstreckt”.

What does Spanne mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininespan (space between the tips of the thumb and little finger)

  2. 2

    femininespan (semi-standardised measure of length)

  3. 3

    femininerange; margin; spread (scope between two values, e.g. a mininum and a maximum)

  4. 4

    femininespan; period of time

verb

as spanne
  1. 1

    first-person singular present

  2. 2

    first/third-person singular subjunctive I

  3. 3

    singular imperative

verb

as spänne
  1. 1

    first/third-person singular subjunctive II of spinnen

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Zeitspanne; (kurzer) Zeitraum, der sich zwischen zwei Zeitpunkten erstreckt 2. räumlicher Abstand; Abstand zwischen zwei Punkten 3. altes Längenmaß, definiert als Abstand zwischen Daumen und kleinem Finger bei gespreizter Hand (etwa 20-25 cm, „neunzöllige Spanne“) oder zwischen Daumen und Zeigefinger („siebenzöllige Spanne“) 4. Handelsspanne, Preisunterschied

The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.

Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of Spanne

  • Spannen plural

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to Spanne

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is Spanne in German?

Spanne appears 1.7 times per million words in written German.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after Spanne