space
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology
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”).
Pronunciation
Noun
space (countable and uncountable, plural spaces)
- (heading) Unlimited or generalized extent, physical or otherwise.
- Distance between things. [from 14thc.]
- Synonyms: break, gap; see also Thesaurus:interspace
- c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 347, column 2:
- But neere him, thy Angell / Becomes a feare: as being o're-powr'd, therefore / Make ſpace enough betweene you.
- 2001 November 3, Sam Wollaston, “Russian around”, in The Guardian:
- 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.
- Physical extent across two or three dimensions (sometimes for or to do something). [from 14thc.]
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 364, column 1:
- 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.
- Physical extent in all directions, seen as an attribute of the universe (now usually considered as a part of space-time), or a mathematical model of this. [from 17thc.]
- 1656, Thomas Hobbes, Elements of Philosophy, section II:
- Space is the Phantasme of a Thing existing without the Mind simply.
- 1880 August, Popular Science:
- 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.
- 2007 April 15, Anushka Asthana, David Smith, The Observer:
- 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.
- The near-vacuum in which planets, stars and other celestial objects are situated; the universe beyond the earth's atmosphere. [from 17thc.]
- Synonym: outer space
- the first man in space
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 86–90:
- 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, […]
- 1900 December – 1901 August, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The First Men in the Moon, London: George Newnes, […], published 1901, →OCLC:
- After all, to go into outer space is not so much worse, if at all, than a polar expedition.
- 2010 August 9, Stephen Hawking, quotee, “Stephen Hawking: mankind must colonise space or die out”, in The Guardian:
- The human race must colonise space within the next two centuries or it will become extinct, Stephen Hawking warned today.
- The physical and psychological area one needs within which to live or operate; personal freedom. [from 20thc.]
- 1996, Linda Brodkey, Writing Permitted in Designated Areas Only:
- Around the time of my parents' divorce, I learned that reading could also give me space.
- 2008, Jimmy Treigle, Walking on Water:
- "I care about you Billy, whether you believe it or not; but right now I need my space."
- Distance between things. [from 14thc.]
- (heading) Of time.
- (now rare, archaic) Free time; leisure, opportunity. [from 14thc.]
- Synonyms: leisure time, spare time
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 245, column 2:
- Come on, thou are granted ſpace.
- 1793, Henry Boyd, “The Royal Message”, in Poems, Dublin: Graisberry and Campbell, page 408:
- In two days hence / The Judge of life and death aſcends his ſeat. / —This will afford him ſpace to reach the camp […].
- A specific (specified) period of time. [from 14thc.]
- Synonyms: duration, span; see also Thesaurus:period
- 1893, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Giles Corey:
- I pray you, sirs, to take some cheers the while I go for a moment's space to my poor afflicted child.
- 2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport:
- 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.
- An undefined period of time (without qualifier, especially a short period); a while. [from 15thc.]
- Synonyms: spell, while; see also Thesaurus:uncertain period
- 1923 May 17, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “(please specify the page)”, in The Inimitable Jeeves, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1979, →ISBN:
- Even Comrade Butt cast off his gloom for a space and immersed his whole being in scrambled eggs.
- (now rare, archaic) Free time; leisure, opportunity. [from 14thc.]
- (heading) A bounded or specific extent, physical or otherwise.
- A (chiefly empty) area or volume with set limits or boundaries. [from 14thc.]
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 2000, Ziba Mir-Hosseini, Islam and Gender:
- The street door was open, and we entered a narrow space with washing facilities, curtained off from the courtyard.
- 2012 July 16, Charlotte Higgins, “Tate Modern unlocks Tanks – and introduces live art into mainstream”, in The Guardian:
- 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.
- (music) A position on the staff or stave bounded by lines. [from 15thc.]
- 1849, Guillaume Louis Bocquillon-Wilhem, translated by John Pyke Hullah, Wilhelm's Method of Teaching Singing:
- The note next above Sol is La; La, therefore, stands in the 2nd space; Si, on the 3rd line, &c.
- 1990, Sammy Nzioki, Music Time:
- 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.
- A gap in text between words, lines etc., or a digital character used to create such a gap. [from 16thc.]
- Synonyms: blank, gap, (graphic design) whitespace
- Hypernym: punctuation mark
- 1992, Sam H Ham, Environmental Interpretation:
- According to experts, a single line of text should rarely exceed about 50 characters (including letters and all the spaces between words).
- 2005, Dr BR Kishore, Dynamic Business Letter Writing:
- It should be typed a space below the salutation : Dear Sir, Subject : Replacement of defective items.
- (letterpress typography) A piece of metal type used to separate words, cast lower than other type so as not to take ink, especially one that is narrower than one en (compare quad). [from 17thc.]
- 1683, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: Or, the Doctrine of Handy-Works. Applied to the art of Printing., volume 2, pages 240–1:
- 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.
- 1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, page 110:
- Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.
- 2005, Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd edition, page 91:
- Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.
- A gap; an empty place. [from 17thc.]
- 2004, Harry M Benshoff, editor, Queer Cinéma:
- Mainstream Hollywood would not cater to the taste for sexual sensation, which left a space for B-movies, including noir.
- 2009, Barbara L. Lev, From Pink to Green:
- A horizontal scar filled the space on her chest where her right breast used to be.
- (geometry) A set of points, each of which is uniquely specified by a number (the dimensionality) of coordinates.
- (countable, mathematics) A generalized construct or set whose members have some property in common; typically there will be a geometric metaphor allowing these members to be viewed as "points". Often used with a restricting modifier describing the members (e.g. vector space), or indicating the inventor of the construct (e.g. Hilbert space). [from 20thc.]
- Functional analysis is best approached through a sound knowledge of Hilbert space theory.
- (countable, figuratively) A field, area, or sphere of activity or endeavour.
- innovation in the browser space
- 2020, Alexia Moncrieff, Expertise, Authority and Control, Cambridge University Press, page 187:
- [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.
- Anything analogous to a physical space in which one can interact, such as an online chat room.
- 2007, Jacob van Kokswijk, Digital Ego: Social and Legal Aspects of Virtual Identity, page 88:
- Communication in Internet chat spaces allows participants to communicate so freely in the relative safety of anonymity that they forget their privacy.
- A (chiefly empty) area or volume with set limits or boundaries. [from 14thc.]
Hyponyms
- 2-em space
- 3-em space
- address space
- aerospace
- affine space
- air space
- airspace
- backspace
- Baire space
- Banach space
- base space
- blue 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
- living space
- loading space
- locally ringed 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
- ringed 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
Derived terms
- 3-to-the-em space
- 5-em space
- 5-to-the-em space
- absolute space
- absolute space-time
- action space
- aerospace
- airspace
- alien space bats
- anchor space
- anti-de Sitter space
- anti-space
- baby space
- backspace
- Bloch space
- breathing-space
- bunkspace
- Calabi-Yau space
- Cartesian space
- Cauchy space
- Chebyshev space
- classifying space
- clearance space
- color space
- confined space
- counter-space
- covering space
- crash space
- crawlspace
- Crookes space
- cyberspace
- deep-space
- de Sitter space
- Destot's space
- double space
- double-space
- Eilenberg-MacLane space
- empty space
- Euclidian space
- factor space
- figure space
- floor-space
- floorspace
- Fock space
- four-space
- Fully Automated Luxury Queer Space Communism
- Haar space
- handicapped space
- hard space
- head space
- headspace
- head-space
- hold space
- H-space
- hydrospace
- hyperspace
- identification space
- ideographic space
- information space
- intercostal space
- interspace
- in the space of
- into space
- kernel space
- kick space
- Kolmogorov space
- latent space
- liminal space
- linear space
- little space
- Lp space
- measure space
- meat space
- meat-space
- multispace
- namespace
- near-space
- near space
- negative space
- no-break space
- non-breaking space
- non-space
- n-space
- open space
- other-space
- paraglottic space
- parallel dead space
- parking space
- personal space
- Poincaré space
- prehilbert space
- pre-Hilbert space
- projective Hilbert space
- pseudospace
- public space
- punctuation space
- pupillary space
- row space
- safe space
- search space
- Seifert fibered space
- Seifert fiber space
- Seifert fibred space
- Seifert fibre space
- shared space
- Sierpinski space
- single-space
- sober space
- Sobolev space
- space adaptation syndrome
- space age
- Space Age
- space agency
- space alien
- space attenuation
- space average
- space bar
- space-based
- space bear
- space biology
- space blanket
- spaceborne
- space-borne
- space bridge
- space buns
- space cadet
- space-cadet keyboard
- space cake
- space capsule
- space case
- space centrode
- space charge
- space cloth
- space communication
- space complexity
- space cone
- space coordinate
- spacecraft
- space current
- space curve
- space debris
- space defence
- space defense
- space disco
- space docking
- space dog
- space dot
- space dust
- space dyeing
- space elevator
- space environment
- space equivalent zone
- space exploration
- space factor
- spacefaring
- space-faring
- space-filling
- space-filling curve
- space-filling model
- space fixed reference
- space flight
- space force
- space frame
- spaceful
- space group
- space guidance
- space gun
- space-happy
- space heater
- space heating
- space helmet
- space herpes
- space hopper
- space ice cream
- space-invader
- space invader
- space junk
- space lattice
- space law
- spaceless
- spacelike
- space-like
- space line
- space-lore
- spacely
- spaceman
- space marine
- space medicine
- space mission
- space motion
- space nation
- space navigation
- space of Destot
- space of Disse
- space opera
- space-operatic
- space out
- space perception
- space permeability
- space polar coordinate
- spaceport
- space power system
- space probe
- space processing
- space programme, space program
- space quadrature
- space quantization
- spacer
- space race
- space reconnaissance
- space reddening
- space request
- space research
- space roar
- space rock
- space rocket
- space rule
- space satellite
- space-saving
- space science
- space sexology
- spaceship
- space ship
- space shuttle
- space sickness
- space simulator
- space station
- space suit
- space suppression
- space technology
- space-time
- space-time crystal
- space-time trade-off
- space tourism
- space tourist
- space travel
- space vehicle
- space velocity
- space vessel
- space walk
- spaceward
- space wave
- space weapon
- space weather
- space work
- space writer
- spacey
- spacial
- spoiler space
- stare into space
- Stone space
- subdural space
- subspace
- sunspace
- swap space
- Talairach space
- Teichmüller space
- third space
- three-space
- time parameter space
- time-space
- time-space complexity
- time-space compression
- time-space convergence
- time-space grid
- topological space
- Traube's space
- Triebel-Lizorkin space
- u-space
- Virchow-Robin space
- visual space
- vowel space
- warm space
- waste of space
- watch this space
- whitespace
- word space
- Zariski-Riemann space
- Zariski space
- zero-width space
Translations
interval of time
|
while — see while
physical extent in two or three dimensions
|
area beyond atmosphere of planets
|
personal freedom
|
bounded or specific physical extent
|
gap between written characters, lines etc.
|
a gap, an empty place
|
piece of type used to separate words
|
music: position on the staff
geometry: set of points
|
mathematics: generalized construct or set
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
- apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
- curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
- square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
- colon ( : )
- comma ( , )
- dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
- ellipsis ( … )
- exclamation mark ( ! )
- fraction slash ( ⁄ )
- guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
- hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
- interpunct ( · )
- interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
- brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
- full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
- question mark ( ? )
- quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
- quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
- semicolon ( ; )
- slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
- space ( ] [ )
Verb
space (third-person singular simple present spaces, present participle spacing, simple past and past participle spaced)
- (obsolete, intransitive) To roam, walk, wander.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.ii:
- But she as Fayes are wont, in priuie place / Did spend her dayes, and lov'd in forests wyld to space.
- (transitive) To set some distance apart.
- Faye had spaced the pots at 8-inch intervals on the windowsill.
- The cities are evenly spaced.
- To insert or utilise spaces in a written text.
- This paragraph seems badly spaced.
- To space out (become distracted, lose focus).
- 1986 August 16, “Happy Birthday Doo (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 5, page 13:
- My sprout, like I'm totally spaced over you and besides I like older women (arh-arh). I love you...
- (transitive, science fiction) To kill (someone) by ejection into outer space, usually without a space suit.
- The captain spaced the traitors.
- 1952, Robert A. Heinlein, The Rolling Stones:
- 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. […] "
- 1995, J. Michael Straczynski, And Now for a Word (Babylon 5), season 2, episode 15, spoken by Dr. Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs):
- A lot of people make jokes about spacing somebody, about shoving somebody out an airlock. I don't think it's funny. Never will.
- (intransitive, science fiction) To travel into and through outer space.
- 1947 January, Bernard I. Kahn, “Command”, in Astounding Science Fiction, volume 38, number 5:
- 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.
Derived terms
- spaced
- spaced-out
- unspace
Related terms
Translations
to set some distance apart
|
to eject into outer space
|
Anagrams
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Noun
space oblique singular, m (oblique plural spaces, nominative singular spaces, nominative plural space)
- Alternative form of espace
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