spanner - Wikiwand

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spanner (hand tool)

Wikipedia

Etymology

From span +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

(UK) enPR: spăn'ə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈspæn.ə(ɹ)/
(US) enPR: spăn'ər, IPA^(key): /ˈspæn.ɚ/
Audio (US): (file)
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -ænə(ɹ)

Noun

spanner (plural spanners)

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts.
Synonym: wrench (US, Canada)

Hypernyms: hand tool < tool

Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.
- 2025 December 19, Kashmir Hill, quoting Amanda Askell, “Why Do A.I. Chatbots Use ‘I’?”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
  Tools don’t have judgment or ethics, and they might fail to push back on bad ideas or dangerous requests. “Your spanner’s never like, ‘This shouldn’t be built,’” she said, using a British term for wrench.
  (Can we archive this URL?)
1. (Canada, US) Any of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object.
  Hypernyms: wrench (US, Canada) < hand tool < tool
  
  The groove in this toolholder is what the spanner grabs onto when you are changing the tool.
(rare) One who, or that which, spans.
- 1915, Florence Kiper Frank, The Jew to Jesus: and other poems:
  The scheme of the spanner of continents and the desire of the little husbandman hoarding for his loved ones...
(graph theory) A (usually sparse) graph whose shortest path distances approximate those in a dense graph or other metric space.
(weaponry) A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.
- 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, Fig. 10., page xvi:
  The spanner for spanning or winding up the spring of the wheel lock.
(obsolete) A device in early steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.
(UK, Ireland) A problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works)
Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.
(UK, Ireland, mildly derogatory) A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language.
You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!

Synonyms

(hand tool for nuts and bolts): wrench (US)

Derived terms

Descendants

Japanese: スパナ (supana)
Korean: 스패너 (seupaeneo)
Malay: sepana

Translations

hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts

Albanian: çelës (sq) m
Arabic: مِفْتَاح إِنْجْلِيزِيّ m (miftāḥ ʔinglīziyy, literally “English key”), مِفْتَاح رَبْط m (miftāḥ rabṭ)
Moroccan Arabic: كالمونط m (klamouniṭ)
Armenian: մանեկադարձիչ (manekadarjičʻ), պտուտակաբանալի (hy) (ptutakabanali)
Azerbaijani: açar (az), qayka açarı
Bashkir: асҡыс (asqıs)
Belarusian: га́ечны ключ m (háječny ključ, literally “nut key”), ключ m (ključ)
Bengali: প্লাস (bn) (plaś), সাঁড়াশিবিশেষ (śãṛaśibiśeś)
Bulgarian: га́ечен ключ (bg) m (gáečen ključ, literally “nut key”), ключ (bg) m (ključ)
Burmese: ကဏန်းလက်မ (my) (ka.nan:lakma.)
Catalan: clau anglesa f
Chinese:
Cantonese: 士巴拿 (si⁶ baa¹ naa^4-2)

Mandarin: 扳手 (zh) (bānshǒu), 扳子 (zh) (bānzi)

Wu: 扳頭 / 扳头 (¹pe-deu), 扳手 (¹pe-seu)
Czech: klíč (cs) m
Danish: fastnøgle c, svensknøgle (da) c (literally “Swedish key”), skiftenøgle c (adjustable)
Dutch: steeksleutel (nl) m, sleutel (nl) m
Esperanto: boltilo
Estonian: mutrivõti, võti (et)
Finnish: kiintoavain (fi) (non-adjustable), jakoavain (fi) (adjustable)
French: clef à écrous m, clef (fr) m / clé (fr) m, serre-écrou m, clé de serrage (fr) m
Galician: chave (gl) f
Georgian: ქანჩგასაღები (kančgasaɣebi), ქანჩის გასაღები (kančis gasaɣebi), გასაღები (gasaɣebi)
German: Schraubenschlüssel (de) m, Schlüssel (de) m
Greek: γερμανικό κλειδί (el) n (germanikó kleidí, literally “German key”), κλειδί (el) n (kleidí)
Hausa: sufana
Hebrew: מַפתֵחַ בְּרָגִים m
Hindi: पाना (hi) m (pānā)
Hungarian: franciakulcs (hu), villáskulcs (hu), csavarkulcs (hu)
Icelandic: skrúflykill m, skiptilykill m
Indonesian: kunci pas (id), sepanar (id)
Irish: castaire m, rinse m
Italian: chiave (it) f, chiave inglese (it)
Japanese: スパナ (ja) (supana), レンチ (ja) (renchi)
Kazakh: сомын кілті (somyn kıltı), кілт (kılt)
Khmer: សោ (km) (sao)
Korean: 스패너 (ko) (seupaeneo), 렌치 (renchi)
Kyrgyz: гайка ачкычы (gayka ackıcı), ачкыч (ky) (ackıc)
Lao: ປະແຈ (pa chǣ)
Latvian: atslēga f
Lithuanian: raktas (lt) m
Macedonian: клуч m (kluč)
Malay: sepana (ms)
Maltese: ġewża f
Maori: wāwāhi, mauhuri, huriperu
Marathi: पाना m (pānā)
Navajo: bee ił hadaʼagizí
Norman: clié à êcrouettes f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: fastnøkkel m, skiftenøkkel (no) m (adjustable)
Persian:
Dari: رَنْج (ranj)

Iranian Persian: آچار (fa) (âčâr)
Polish: klucz płaski m, klucz (pl) m
Portuguese: chave (pt) f, chave inglesa (pt) (literally “English key”)
Romanian: cheie (ro) f
Russian: га́ечный ключ (ru) m (gáječnyj ključ, literally “nut key”), ключ (ru) m (ključ)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: кљу̑ч m

Roman: kljȗč (sh) m
Slovak: kľúč m
Slovene: ključ (sl) m, vijačni ključ m
Spanish: llave (es) f, llave fija f
Swahili: spana (sw)
Swedish: skruvnyckel (sv) c, nyckel (sv) c
Tagalog: liyabe
Tajik: калиди гайкатобӣ (kalid-i gaykatobi)
Tatar: ачкыч (tt) (açqıç)
Thai: ประแจ (th) (bprà-jɛɛ)
Turkish: İngiliz anahtarı (tr) (literally “English key”) (adjustable)
Ukrainian: гайкови́й ключ m (hajkovýj ključ, literally “nut key”), мутро́вий ключ m (mutróvyj ključ), ключ (uk) m (ključ)
Urdu: پانا m (pānā)
Uyghur: كۇلۇچ (kuluch)
Uzbek: gayka kaliti, kalit (uz), gayka klyuchi, klyuch (uz)
Vietnamese: mỏ lết (vi) (adjustable), cờ lê (vi)
Welsh: sbaner

something unexpected or troublesome

German: Knüppel (zwischen den Beinen) m, Sand (im Getriebe) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Maltese: ^{(please verify)} spaner m
Romanian: ^{(please verify)} cheie fixa

Verb

spanner (third-person singular simple present spanners, present participle spannering, simple past and past participle spannered)

To use a spanner; to fix with a spanner

Anagrams

Pensarn, panners