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PlainSpell

span

/spæn/noun, verb

span is spelled S-P-A-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, span means “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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of span is spans.

How many letters and syllables are in span?

Letters4: S-P-A-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,347th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is span?

Span appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th 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 span?

  • US /spæn/
  • British /span/
  • Australia /spæːn/

As a verb (“To extend across (a gap or space between two sides)”): /spæn/, /spæːn/.

As a verb: /spæn/.

Span has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-span.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with span?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as span from its last stressed vowel (/æn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: snap, pans.

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 span

  • spans plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • spanning participle, present
  • spanned participle, past
  • spun

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does span mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 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. 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. 3

    A small space or a brief portion of time.

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

  4. 4

    A portion of something by length; a subsequence.

  5. 5

    The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.

  6. 6

    The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.

  7. 7

    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. 8

    CanadaUSA pair of horses or other animals driven or sold together; usually, such a pair of horses usually being similar in color, form, and action.

verb

  1. 1

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

    The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.

  2. 2

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

    The parking lot spans three acres.

  3. 3

    To extend through (a period of time).

    The novel spans three centuries.

  4. 4

    To 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

  5. 5

    To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.

  6. 6

    USdatedTo be matched, as horses.

  7. 7

    To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.

  8. 8

    datedsimple past of spin (a form of spin)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Span in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchempan (Any of various units of length approximating…), couvrir, chevaucher (to extend through the distance between or across), s'étendre (to extend through a period of time)
GermanSpanne (Any of various units of length approximating…), überspannen, einnehmen (to extend through the distance between or across), aufspannen (mathematics: to generate an entire space by…)
Portuguesepalmo (Any of various units of length approximating…), abranger (to extend through the distance between or across), período (small space or a brief portion of time), vão (spread between supports), espaço gerado (mathematics: the space of all linear…)
Spanishpalmo, cuarta (Any of various units of length approximating…), extenderse sobre, abarcar, abracar (to extend through the distance between or across), luz (spread between supports)

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 span come from?

From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after span