Meaning & use
shoulder width
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
The distance across a person's shoulders, used as a rough unit of measurement.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a shoulder width' or 'two shoulder widths'; often follows 'a' or 'about'.
Patterns
- a shoulder width
- about a shoulder width
- the width of someone's shoulders
The doorway was barely a shoulder width across.
Stand with your feet about a shoulder width apart.
The gap between the two posts is roughly a shoulder width.
nouncountabletechnical
The measured distance from one shoulder to the other, as recorded for clothing or equipment.
Grammar: Used when giving an exact figure: 'a shoulder width of 45 cm'.
Patterns
- a shoulder width of + measurement
- measure someone's shoulder width
The jacket is cut for a shoulder width of 46 centimeters.
The technician recorded his shoulder width before fitting the harness.
Word forms
| plural | shoulder widths |
|---|
Common combinations
- a shoulder width apart
- Place the two markers a shoulder width apart.
- about a shoulder width
- The ledge is about a shoulder width wide.
- shoulder width measurement
- Take a shoulder width measurement before ordering the coat.
- barely a shoulder width
- The tunnel was barely a shoulder width, so we crawled.
Synonyms and how they differ
- shoulder span
- A technical term for the same distance, used mostly in measuring bodies or clothing rather than as an everyday unit.
Word family
- shoulder-width adjective
- Used before a noun to mean as wide as the shoulders: a shoulder-width stance.
- width noun
- How wide something is, measured from side to side.
Commonly confused: shoulder width or shoulder-width?
shoulder width vs shoulder-width
The hyphenated form is the adjective (a shoulder-width gap), while the two-word form is the noun (a shoulder width).
Practice
Which sentence uses 'shoulder width' correctly as a measurement?
Choose one answer.
'A shoulder width apart' uses the phrase as a distance between two things. The other options treat it as a body part, a pain, or a feature of eyes, which the noun cannot mean.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shoulder width”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.