Space is the area between, around, or within things. Your classroom has space for thirty desks. A parking lot has spaces marked with white lines. When you're reading and feel crowded by your younger brother, you might ask for some space to concentrate.

Space can also mean the vast expanse beyond Earth's atmosphere, where planets, stars, and galaxies exist. Astronauts travel into space, floating weightlessly hundreds of miles above Earth. Space exploration has taught us about our solar system and the universe beyond. When someone spaces out, they're staring into the distance, lost in thought, as if their mind has drifted into outer space.

The word appears in many useful phrases. A space heater warms a room. Spacing refers to how things are arranged with room between them, like the spacing between words on a page. To space something out means to spread it over time: you might space out your homework over the week instead of doing it all Sunday night.

When something takes up space, it occupies physical room. When you make space for something, you're creating room for it, whether that's clearing space on a shelf or making space in your schedule for baseball practice.