Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: spann

span

2 noun
     
Related topics: Architecture
span2 [countable]
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
Captivity vastly reduces the life span of whales.
3AA 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
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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