What does wingspread mean?
Wingspread is a noun denoting the distance from one wingtip to the other when a bird or other winged animal extends its wings fully. It can also refer to the act or condition of spreading the wings, though measured uses are now especially common. The term appears frequently in natural-history writing, descriptions of bird morphology, and accounts of large flying species. A sentence such as “The condor has a wingspread of more than three metres” uses the word in its principal numerical sense. Wingspread is closely associated with wingspan, but wingspan more specifically emphasizes the measurement itself, while wingspread can additionally describe the motion or state of opening the wings. Although it is readily understood, wingspread has a slightly formal or literary tone and is less common in everyday conversation than the ordinary word wings. It remains a precise and evocative term for describing the impressive breadth of an animal's extended wings.
nounThe distance from one wingtip to the other when a bird or other winged animal holds its wings fully extended; also, the act or condition of spreading its wings.
- The distance between the tips of a bird's or other winged animal's extended wings.
- The act or condition of spreading or extending the wings.
"The condor has a wingspread that can exceed three metres."
"The eagle wheels above the cliff on a broad wingspread."
"The bird sounded a call and lifted into the air with a powerful wingspread."
The plural is uncommon but is used when referring to the measured wingspans of multiple animals or to several separate displays of extended wings.
"The specimens have wingspreads ranging from two to nearly four metres."
A bird's wingspread is measured from tip to tip—not, as the name might suggest, along only one wing.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of wingspread
Wingspread is an English compound formed from the noun wing and the verb spread. Wing continues Old English winge, while spread continues Old English spreada, meaning to spread out or extend. The compound developed as a noun for the extent or act of the wings being extended, and related derivatives such as winged and winger belong to the same wing-forming family.
Related word forms
How wingspread is actually used
The word is chiefly used in descriptions of birds and other winged animals, particularly when giving a measured tip-to-tip extent. In ordinary speech, it can sound formal or literary.
Easily confused with wingspread
Wingspan specifically denotes the tip-to-tip measurement of extended wings, whereas wingspread can also denote the act or condition of spreading the wings.