space
/speɪs/noun, verb
space is spelled S-P-A-C-E. The wrong spelling people search most is spoace: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 2,500 of all searches for the word. Space is a noun meaning “The distance between objects”. The plural of space is spaces.
How many letters and syllables are in space?
| Letters | 5: S-P-A-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 170 times per million words; the 591st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, spoace, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell space?
Space is spelled S-P-A-C-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 2,621 of the searches for space in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is space?
Space appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce space?
- /speɪs/
Space has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-space.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with space?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as space.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: scape, aspec.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of space
- spaces plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- spacing participle, present
- spaced participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does space mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The distance between objects.
- 2
A physical extent across two or three dimensions (sometimes for or to do something).
- 3
A physical extent in all directions, seen as an attribute of the universe (now usually considered as a part of space-time), or a mathematical model of this.
- 4
The near-vacuum in which planets, stars and other celestial objects are situated; the universe beyond the earth's atmosphere.
the first man in space
- 5
The physical and psychological area one needs within which to live or operate; personal freedom.
- 6
archaicFree time; leisure, opportunity.
- 7
A specific (specified) period of time.
- 8
An undefined period of time (without qualifier, especially a short period); a while.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo roam, walk, wander.
- 2
To set some distance apart.
Faye had spaced the pots at 8-inch intervals on the windowsill.
- 3
To insert or utilise spaces in a written text.
This paragraph seems badly spaced.
- 4
To space out (become distracted, lose focus).
- 5
To kill (someone) by ejection into outer space, usually without a space suit.
The captain spaced the traitors.
- 6
To travel into and through outer space.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate space?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of space: sp.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Space in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | espaço , espaçar |
| French | espacer , espace , blanc |
| German | Raum, Platz , Weltraum, All, Weltall , Freiraum |
| Spanish | espacio |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does space come from?
From Middle English space, from Anglo-Norman space, variant of espace, espas, et al.; and spaze, variant of espace, from Latin spatium, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- (“to stretch, to pull”). Partially displaced native Old English rum, whence Modern English room.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).