The spacebar is the long, horizontal key at the bottom of a keyboard that adds a space between words when you press it. Without the spacebar, everything you type would run together and be impossible to read.

The spacebar is the largest key on the keyboard, stretching across almost the entire bottom row. You can press it with either thumb, making it easy to reach no matter which fingers you're using to type. Its size isn't an accident: spaces between words are so important that keyboard designers made sure you could hit this key quickly and reliably.

Before computers, typewriters used a spacebar too. When you pressed it, a mechanism would physically slide the paper over by one space. Today's spacebar works instantly, adding a digital space wherever your cursor is blinking.

The spacebar also has special uses beyond typing. In video games, players often press the spacebar to jump, shoot, or activate abilities. When watching videos online, tapping the spacebar usually pauses or plays the video. And in some programs, holding down the spacebar temporarily switches your tool or view to something different.