Spad vs Span - What's the difference?
spad | span |
As adjectives the difference between spad and span is that spad is thin, tiny, young while span is hairless, glabrous. As a verb spad is .
Other Comparisons: What's the difference?
spad English
Alternative forms
* SpAd
Noun
( en noun)
A government adviser, often in a political or media role.
* 2009 , Ben Wright, Hidden world of the political advisers , BBC:
- A successful stint as a spad can be a crucial political apprenticeship - as many of the current crop of professional politicians including the Miliband brothers, David Cameron and George Osborne can testify - so long as they stay in the dark.
* 2012 , Avoid The Thick of It-style spad appointments, ministers told , The Guardian :
- The hit BBC sitcom satirising the inner workings of Whitehall and the so-called spads contains "more than a grain of truth", the head of the cross-party public administration select committee has warned.
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span English
Etymology 1
(etyl) spann
Noun
( en noun)
The space from the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; eighth of a fathom.
Hence, a small space or a brief portion of time.
* Alexander Pope
- Yet not to earth's contracted span / Thy goodness let me bound.
* Farquhar
- Life's but a span ; I'll every inch enjoy.
* 2007 . Zerzan, John. Silence .
- The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans ,
The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
(nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
(obsolete) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
(mathematics) the space of all linear combinations of something
Related terms
* attention span
* memory span
Etymology 2
Old English spannan
Verb
( spann)
To traverse the distance between.
- The suspension bridge spanned the canyon as tenuously as one could imagine.
To cover or extend over an area or time period.
- The parking lot spans three acres.
- The novel spans three centuries.
- World record! 5 GHz WiFi connection spans 189 miles. [http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/27/world-record-5ghz-wifi-connection-spans-189-miles/]
* Prescott
- The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.
To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
- to span''' a space or distance; to '''span a cylinder
* Bible, Isa. xiviii. 13
- My right hand hath spanned the heavens.
(mathematics) to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations
(intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.
Etymology 3
Verb
(head)
(archaic, nonstandard) (spin)
*
* '>citation
*:a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people
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