spans

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of span.

   Engineers inspected the spans of the old viaduct one by one.

   The two spans of time were separated by nearly a century.

   Note

   A regular plural, and the form engineers use most. A bridge or viaduct is counted in spans, each one the stretch between two supports, and a cable also runs in spans from one support to the next. The old hand measure pluralizes the same way, so three spans means three handspans of about nine inches each. The identical spelling also serves the verb's present tense, and context decides which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of span.

   The fallen tree spans the entire width of the trail.

   This collection spans every major period of the artist's work.

   Note

   The -s form needed after a singular subject: the bridge spans the river, her career spans four decades. Most of its meanings take a direct object, whether that object is a distance or a stretch of time, so the object follows the verb immediately. Mathematicians use it the same way: a set of vectors spans a space when its linear combinations generate all of it.

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