spans

Noun

span (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.
   • The truth is that the charm of her body made up for her other faults: she measured less than 7 spans¹ from her feet to the top of her head, and her back, which weighed somewhat heavily on her, forced her to look down at the ground more than she would have wished. [...] 1. A span is approximately...Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 109
3. (broadly) A small space or a brief portion of time.
   • He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.
4. A portion of something by length; a subsequence.
   • 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. The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
   • 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. The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.

See all 19 meanings of span