I. span 1 /spæn/ BrE AmE
a past tense of ↑ spin 1
II. span 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: spann ]
1 . a period of time between two dates or events
over/within/in a span of something
Over a span of ten years, the company has made great progress.
It’ll be difficult to hire that many new staff in such a short time span.
2 . the length of time over which someone’s life, ability to pay attention to something etc continues
attention/concentration span
Most two-year-olds have a very short attention span.
Captivity vastly reduces the life span of whales.
3 . the part of a bridge, ↑ arch etc that goes across from one support to another
4 . the distance from one side of something to the other:
a bird with a large wing span
III. span 3 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle spanned , present participle spanning ) [transitive]
1 . to include all of a period of time:
a career which spanned nearly 60 years
2 . to include all of a particular space or area:
The Mongol Empire spanned much of Central Asia.
3 . if a bridge spans an area of water, especially a river, it goes from one side to the other