span
/spæn/
span is pronounced span (/spæn/). Span refers to the full extent or reach of something, or a portion of time or space that covers a continuous interval. In linguistics and measurement, it can describe the distance between two endpoints or the range of a set. The term often implies a measure of extent rather than depth, and may appear in phrases like “time span” or “reach span.”.
Span refers to the full extent or reach of something, or a portion of time or space that covers a continuous interval. In linguistics and measurement, it can describe the distance between two endpoints or the range of a set. The term often implies a measure of extent rather than depth, and may appear in phrases like “time span” or “reach span.”
"The bridge spans the river in a single, elegant arch."
"Her attention span increased after the break."
"The project covers a 12-month span."
Pronounce it as /spæn/. The initial consonants are a clean /s/ followed by /p/. The vowel is a short, low-front /æ/ (as in cat). Stress is on the single syllable, with a quick release from /p/ into /æ/. In fluent speech, you’ll often hear a short, unobtrusive schwa in fast contexts, but you should keep it crisp: /spæn/.
Common errors include lengthening the vowel to /eɪ/ as in ‘span’ with a drawn-out sound, producing a rhotacized or blended /æŋ/ by adding an 'n' too strongly, or voicing the /p/ into a slight /b/ in rapid speech. To correct: keep the vowel short and lax as /æ/, release the /p/ immediately into the /æ/ without a closure before the /n/ becomes audible, and end with a crisp /n/.
In US/UK/AU, span remains /spæn/. The main differences lie in the surrounding vowels and post-aspiration: US speakers may have slightly stronger aspiration on /p/, UK speakers may have a shorter, sharper /æ/ in some rapid speech contexts, and AU English tends toward a non-rhotic, clipped quality that can compress vowel length slightly. The rhoticity of /r/ is not present in span, so the vowel remains the focus of the color between dialects.
The challenge lies in producing a precise, brief /æ/ vowel followed immediately by a plosive /p/ without vowel lengthening or nasal insertion, and finishing with a clear /n/. In connected speech, people may insert a half-schwa or blend sounds, which weakens the crisp stop-vowel-stop sequence. Controlling timing—short, tight vowel, rapid /p/ release, and strong final /n/—is essential to avoid an overly elongated or misarticulated sound.
Span has no silent letters. Every sound in span is spoken: /s/ as a voiceless alveolar sibilant, /p/ as a voiceless bilabial plosive, /æ/ as a short front vowel, and /n/ as a voiced alveolar nasal. In rapid speech, the vowel can be shortened slightly and the /p/ and /n/ can blend a touch, but you always pronounce all four phonemes clearly in careful speech.
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Span comes from the Old English spanu, which is related to Old Norse spǫnn, meaning a rod or support and, more broadly, a distance or breadth. The Proto-Germanic root was *spannuz, tied to bridging or spreading across. Early senses in Old English and medieval texts referenced the bending or stretching of a surface or distance between two points. Over time, the word broadened to denote any extent from end to end, and by Middle English it had generalized to refer to time periods, distances, and ranges. In modern usage, span is a versatile noun and verb, used in contexts ranging from physical breadth (a span of rope) to temporal duration (a span of years). First known uses appear in the 9th–12th centuries in Germanic-influenced English texts, with the sense of “distance between two points” blossoming into specialized technical usage in engineering, statistics, and cognitive science.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "span" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "span" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "span"
-ran sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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