Meaning & use
spant
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
One of the curved ribs that form the cross-sectional shape of a boat hull or aircraft body, to which the outer skin is fixed.
Grammar: Countable, often plural: the spants are glued to the keel.
Patterns
- a spant of something
- fix spants to something
The builder cut each spant from marine plywood and set it on the keel.
Skin panels were riveted to the fuselage spants.
A cracked spant weakened the whole hull.
Word forms
| plural | spants |
|---|
Common combinations
- cut a spant
- He cut a spant from plywood using a template.
- fuselage spants
- The fuselage spants were spaced evenly along the body.
- fit the spants
- After fitting the spants, they added the planking.
- a laminated spant
- A laminated spant is bent from thin layers of wood.
- mark the spants
- Mark the spants on the building board first.
Synonyms and how they differ
- frame
- Frame is the general word and works for any structure, while spant is limited to boats and aircraft.
- rib
- Rib is the everyday comparison and is used for both hulls and wings, but spant is the builder's exact term for the body section.
- former
- Former is another trade word for a shaping piece, often in aircraft, and is used more for temporary shapes.
- bulkhead
- A bulkhead is a solid dividing wall, whereas a spant is an open frame.
Word family
Commonly confused: spant or span?
spant vs span
A span is the distance between two supports or the width of wings; a spant is a structural rib.
Practice
A boat builder bending plywood to form the curved cross-section of a hull is making a ____.
Choose one answer.
A spant is a cross-sectional rib. A stringer runs lengthwise, a rudder steers and the keel is the central bottom beam.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “spant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.