span
11
9.8
An old measure of length about nine inches based on the width of a hand
- noun
- /spæn/
- Archaic
:
palmo
- In crafting, the span of your hand is often used to determine the size of small objects.
Examples
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The span of a human hand is typically about 9 inches, making it a useful measurement tool.
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Did you know that the span of your hand plus the length of your middle finger is the same as the length of your foot?
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That's the that's the span, the distance that goes from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger.
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When measuring fabric, she found that the span from her thumb to pinky helped get the right width.
Synonyms
8.9
A small measure equal to the width of a human hand
is an older fixed measure approximated as nine inches not just hand width
Compounds
How Long
Surface Forms
Etymology
Span as a small measure comes from the idea of 'stretching the hand'; the old English span was the width of an open hand, about nine inches, so people used their hand span to measure short lengths.