Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Mathematics A set of elements or points satisfying specified geometric postulates.
  • noun The infinite extension of the three-dimensional region in which all matter exists.
  • noun The expanse in which the solar system, stars, and galaxies exist; the universe.
  • noun The region of this expanse beyond Earth's atmosphere.
  • noun An extent or expanse of a surface or three-dimensional area.
  • noun A blank or empty area.
  • noun An area provided for a particular purpose.
  • noun Reserved or available accommodation on a public transportation vehicle.
  • noun A period or interval of time.
  • noun A little while.
  • noun Sufficient freedom from external pressure to develop or explore one's needs, interests, and individuality.
  • noun Music One of the intervals between the lines of a staff.
  • noun Printing One of the blank pieces of type or other means used for separating words or characters.
  • noun One of the intervals during the telegraphic transmission of a message when the key is open or not in contact.
  • noun Blank sections in printed material or broadcast time available for use by advertisers.
  • intransitive verb To organize or arrange with spaces between.
  • intransitive verb To separate or keep apart.
  • intransitive verb Slang To stupefy or disorient. Often used with out.
  • intransitive verb To be or become stupefied or disoriented. Often used with out.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The clearance-space in a steam-engine cylinder between the head of the cylinder and the end of the piston when the crank is on its dead center.
  • noun The difference between the readings of the mercurial thermometer when the temperature is rising and when it is falling, due in part to the change in the curvature of the meniscus and in part to the expansion of the bulb from the change in pressure of the vertical capillary column. The general effect is analogous to that of the dead motion of the micrometer-screw.
  • noun Euclidean space.
  • noun The general receptacle of things; room
  • noun as a character of the universe
  • noun as a cognition or psychological phenomenon
  • noun as a mathematical system.
  • noun The interval between any two or more objects, or between terminal points; distance; extent, as of surface: as, the space of a mile.
  • noun The interval between two points of time; quantity of time; duration.
  • noun A short time; a while.
  • noun Hence, time in which to do something; respite; opportunity; leisure.
  • noun A path; course (?).
  • noun In printing, one of the blank types which separate the words in print. The thicknesses most used are one third, one fourth, and one fifth of the square body of the text-type.
  • noun In musical notation, one of the degrees between the lines of the staff.
  • noun In ornithology, an unfeathered place on the skin between pterylæ; an apterium, Coues, Key to N. A. Birds, p. 87.
  • To move at large; expatiate.
  • To set at intervals; put a space between; specifically, in printing, to arrange the spaces and intervals in or between so that there may be no obvious disproportion: as, to space a paragraph; to space words, lines, or letters.
  • To divide into spaces.
  • To measure by paces.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Extension, considered independently of anything which it may contain; that which makes extended objects conceivable and possible.
  • noun Place, having more or less extension; room.
  • noun A quantity or portion of extension; distance from one thing to another; an interval between any two or more objects.
  • noun Quantity of time; an interval between two points of time; duration; time.
  • noun rare A short time; a while.
  • noun obsolete Walk; track; path; course.
  • noun A small piece of metal cast lower than a face type, so as not to receive the ink in printing, -- used to separate words or letters.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, area, from Old French espace, from Latin spatium.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman space, variant of espace, espas et al., and Old French spaze, variant of espace, from Latin spatium, from Proto-Indo-European ( > speed).

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Examples

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  • He said:

    You may walk into the spaces of mildness and obedience

    with the rebellious, the dreamers and the scared;

    you know that the city has been raped,

    that everything is permissible, impossible and chaotic.

    You may stand under the sun,

    write on its walls with the blood & wisdom

    which it has hidden in the memory box.

    White birds in a black space.

    Black birds in a white space.

    - Ashur Etwebi, 'White Birds in a Black Space', translated from the Arabic by Ashur Etwebi.

    November 10, 2008

  • "Space: The final frontier

    These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise

    Its 5 year mission

    To explore strange new worlds

    To seek out new life and new civilizations

    To boldly go where no man has gone before"

    - Captain Kirk

    December 6, 2010