Etimology
From Middle English space, from Anglo-Norman space, variant of espace, espas et al., and spaze, variant of espace, from Latin spatium, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- (“to stretch, to pull”).
noun
space (countable and uncountable, plural spaces)
(heading) Unlimited or generalized extent, physical or otherwise.
(heading) Of time.
(heading) A bounded or specific extent, physical or otherwise.
Examples
Synonyms: break, gap; see also Thesaurus:interspace
But neere him, thy Angell / Becomes a feare: as being o're-powr'd, therefore / Make ſpace enough betweene you.
Which means that for every car there was 10 years ago, there are now 40. Which means - and this is my own, not totally scientific, calculation - that the space between cars on the roads in 1991 was roughly 39 car lengths, because today there is no space at all.
Synonyms: area, volume
O God, I could be bounded in a nutſhell, and / count my ſelfe a King of infinite ſpace; were it not that / I haue bad dreames.
They also wanted a larger garden and more space for home working.
Space is the Phantasme of a Thing existing without the Mind simply.
These are not questions which can be decided by reference to our space intuitions, for our intuitions are confined to Euclidean space, and even there are insufficient, approximative.
The early results from Gravity Probe B, one of Nasa's most complicated satellites, confirmed yesterday 'to a precision of better than 1 per cent' the assertion Einstein made 90 years ago - that an object such as the Earth does indeed distort the fabric of space and time.
Synonym: outer space
the first man in space
How firſt began this Heav'n which we behold / Diſtant ſo high, with moving Fires adornd / Innumerable, and this which yeelds or fills / All ſpace, the ambient Aire wide interfus'd / Imbracing round this florid Earth, […]
After all, to go into outer space is not so much worse, if at all, than a polar expedition.
The human race must colonise space within the next two centuries or it will become extinct, Stephen Hawking warned today.
Around the time of my parents' divorce, I learned that reading could also give me space.
"I care about you Billy, whether you believe it or not; but right now I need my space."
Synonyms: leisure time, spare time
Come on, thou are granted ſpace.
In two days hence / The Judge of life and death aſcends his ſeat. / —This will afford him ſpace to reach the camp […].
Synonyms: duration, span; see also Thesaurus:period
I pray you, sirs, to take some cheers the while I go for a moment's space to my poor afflicted child.
The match was lost, though, in the space of just twenty minutes or so.
But their lead lasted just 10 minutes before Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe both headed home in the space of two minutes to wrestle back control.
Synonyms: spell, while; see also Thesaurus:uncertain period
Even Comrade Butt cast off his gloom for a space and immersed his whole being in scrambled eggs.
Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.
The street door was open, and we entered a narrow space with washing facilities, curtained off from the courtyard.
Converted from vast chambers beneath the old Bankside Power Station which once held a million gallons of oil, the new public areas consist of two large circular spaces for performances and film installations, plus a warren of smaller rooms.
The note next above Sol is La; La, therefore, stands in the 2nd space; Si, on the 3rd line, &c.
The lines and spaces of the staff are named according to the first seven letters of the alphabet, that is, A B C D E F G.
Synonyms: blank, gap, whitespace
Hypernym: punctuation mark
According to experts, a single line of text should rarely exceed about 50 characters .
It should be typed a space below the salutation : Dear Sir, Subject : Replacement of defective items.
Synonyms: quad, quadrat
If it be only a Single Letter or two that drops, he thruſts the end of his Bodkin between every Letter of that Word, till he comes to a Space: and then perhaps by forcing thoſe Letters closer, he may have room to put in another Space or a Thin Space; which if he cannot do, and he finds the Space ſtand Looſe in the Form; he with the Point of his Bodkin picks the Space up and bows it a little; which bowing makes the Letters on each ſide of the Space keep their parallel diſtance; for by its Spring it thruſts the Letters that were cloſed with the end of the Bodkin to their adjunct Letters, that needed no cloſing.
Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.
Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.
Mainstream Hollywood would not cater to the taste for sexual sensation, which left a space for B-movies, including noir.
A horizontal scar filled the space on her chest where her right breast used to be.
Functional analysis is best approached through a sound knowledge of Hilbert space theory.
innovation in the browser space
CNBC has shown a greater commitment to the crypto space than most other mainstream outlets, providing daily updates on bitcoin or other very large cryptocurrencies.
[T]hey became responsible for managing aspects of civilian labour in the medical space, and their roles were contrasted with those of the female physiotherapists in the hospital.
Communication in Internet chat spaces allows participants to communicate so freely in the relative safety of anonymity that they forget their privacy.
Related words
hyponyms
2-em space
3-em space
address space
aerospace
affine space
airspace
air space
backspace
Baire space
Banach space
base space
breathing space
bunkspace
chemical space
column space
compact space
conjugate space
connected space
crawlspace
crawl space
cyberspace
danger space
dark space
dead-air space
dead space
deep space
drift space
dual space
Einstein space
em space
en space
Euclidean space
exceptional space
exotic four-space
fishing space
flat space
floor space
Foch space
Fourier space
Fréchet space
free space
function space
G space
hair space
half space
Hausdorff space
headspace
Hilbert space
homeomorphic space
homogeneous space
hydrospace
hyperbolic space
hyperspace
image space
inertial space
inner product space
interaction space
interplanetary space
interstellar space
intervillous space
isometric space
joint space
justifying space
lacunary space
Lindelöf space
loading space
mathematical space
measurable space
metacompact space
metric space
metrizable space
Minkowski space
Moore space
mutton space
namespace
n-dimensional space
normal space
normed linear space
n space
null space
NUT space
object space
open half space
orbit space
orthogonal space
outer space
paracompact space
Pauli spin space
Peano space
perfectly separable space
perivitelline space
phase space
Polish space
popliteal space
pore space
probability space
problem space
projective space
pseudospace
quotient space
reflexive Banach space
regular space
regular topological space
Riemann space
sample space
separable space
sequentially compact space
shrinking space
spin space
state space
strictly convex space
subarachnoid space
subspace
symmetric space
T0 space
T1 space
T3 space
T4 space
tangent space
tensor space
thick space
thin space
topological space
total space
triangulable space
Tychonoff space
uniform space
unitary space
vector space
wave-vector space
weakly complete space
whitespace
white space
workspace
verb
space (third-person singular simple present spaces, present participle spacing, simple past and past participle spaced)
(obsolete, intransitive) To roam, walk, wander.
(transitive) To set some distance apart.
To insert or utilise spaces in a written text.
To space out (become distracted, lose focus).
(transitive, science fiction) To kill someone by ejecting them into outer space, usually without a space suit.
(intransitive, science fiction) To travel into and through outer space.
Examples
But she as Fayes are wont, in priuie place / Did spend her dayes, and lov'd in forests wyld to space.
Faye had spaced the pots at 8-inch intervals on the windowsill.
The cities are evenly spaced.
This paragraph seems badly spaced.
My sprout, like I'm totally spaced over you and besides I like older women . I love you...
The captain spaced the traitors.
Sound effect of blow with blunt instrument, groan, and the unmistakable cycling of an air lock—Castor: "Sorry, folks. My assistant has just spaced Mr. Rudolf. […] "
A lot of people make jokes about spacing somebody, about shoving somebody out an airlock. I don't think it's funny. Never will.
He well remembered, when he was a junior officer, how the sight of a well dressed, impeccably neat commanding officer, no matter how long they had been spacing, maintained the enthusiasm, confidence and morale of the officers and men.
Related words
related terms
espace
spacious
spatial