Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Order by: alphabetical | chronological
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| hovercar n. (1958) | a car that hovers above the ground, typically conceived as using antigravity technology |
| hubward adv. (1977) | (of a rotating or circular body, as a space station) near or towards the center, rather than the edge |
| Hugo n. (1953) | any of several awards presented annually at the World Science Fiction Convention for excellence in science fiction or fantasy writing, art, publishing, etc. |
| hull v. (1942) | (usu. passive) to rupture the hull of a spaceship (cf. slightly earlier hulled adj.) |
| hulled adj. (1941) | of a spaceship: having a ruptured hull |
| humanoid n. (1940) | a non-human being that has a human-like bodily form |
| humanoid adj. (1940) | esp. of a robot or alien: having a humanoid form; of or relating to humanoids |
| hyperdrive n. (1946) | a spaceship drive that enables travel faster than the speed of light; (also) the state of such travel; cf. hyperspace n. |
| hyperspace n. (1928) | a dimension or other theoretical region that coexists with our own but typically has different physical laws, esp. such a region that allows travel through it such that the total journey occurs at faster-than-light speeds; cf. hyperdrive n. |
| hyperspatial adj. (1934) | in or relating to hyperspace n. |
| hyperspeed n. (1951) | a speed faster than the speed of light |
| hypospray n. (1947) | an injection device that forces a fine, high-pressure jet of fluid through the skin without breaking it |
| illo n. (1945) | an illustration |
| imaginative adj. (1914) | denoting a genre of literature, etc. that is not realistic or mimetic; science fiction, fantasy, and horror collectively |
| impeller n. (1936) | a device used to produce propulsive thrust |
| impervium n. (1932) | a virtually impenetrable or indestructible substance |
| impossible story n. (1913) | esp. in the early pulp era: a work of imaginative fiction; a different story n. |
| inertial dampener n. (1998) | = inertial damper n. |
| inertial damper n. (1992) | a device or system that partially negates the effects of inertia, used especially to protect those on board a spaceship from the effects of rapid changes in acceleration |
| infodump n. (1978) | a large (often unwieldy or indigestible) amount of information supplied all at once; spec. as background or descriptive information in a narrative |
| infodumping n. (1995) | the practice of using infodump n. in literature |
| inhuman n. (1926) | a nonhuman being; cf. alien n. |
| inhuman adj. (1930) | not human; alien |
| inner space n. (1920) | the human mind; the innermost parts of oneβs psyche |
| insectoid n. (1937) | an insect-like alien |
| insectoid adj. (1950) | (esp. of an alien) insect-like |
| insectoidal adj. (1956) | = insectoid adj. |