Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Order by: alphabetical | chronological
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| Terran n. 2 (1944) | a common language spoken on Earth or by Earthlings |
| Terran adj. (1935) | of or pertaining to Earth or its inhabitants |
| Terranian n. (1913) | a native or inhabitant of Earth; = Terran n. 1; also as adj. |
| Terrene n. (1929) | = Terran n. 1 |
| Terrene adj. 1 (1929) | = Terran adj. |
| terrene adj. 2 (1941) | made of matter (as opposed to antimatter); cf. contraterrene adj. |
| terrestial n. (1930) | a person from Earth; a human |
| terrestial adj. (1711) | of or from Earth |
| Terrestrial n. 1 (1889) | a native or inhabitant of Earth; = earthling n. |
| Terrestrial n. 2 (1944) | a language or dialect spoken on Earth; a universal language spoken widely by Earth people; Earthian n. 2, Terran n. 2 |
| Terrestrian n. (1807) | a native or inhabitant of Earth; = Terrestrial n. 1 |
| terrestrian adj. (1930) | of Earth |
| tesser v. (1962) | in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time: to travel through space by means of a tesseract n. |
| tesseract n. (1962) | in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time: a means of travelling through space by manipulating the dimensions of spacetime |
| thionite n. (1937) | an addictive drug which induces euphoric dreams |
| thought-controlled adj. (1934) | of devices, computers, etc.: controlled by a person’s thoughts or neural impulses |
| thought-reading machine n. (1931) | a machine that can read a person’s thoughts |
| thought screen n. (1931) | = thought shield n. |
| thought shield n. (1931) | a mental barrier that prevents one’s thoughts from being read by a telepath; = mind shield n. |
| thought-variant n. (1933) | a story characterized by a focus on significant ideas rather than action |
| thought wave n. (1849) | a thought emanating from one's mind, esp. a telepathic emanation; a thought or thoughts travelling on a hypothetical medium of thought transfer |
| three-D n. (1948) | a device or system capable of transmitting or displaying a three dimensional image or video; (also) a three-dimensional image or video; cf. tri-D n. |
| three vee n. (1954) | a device capable of transmitting or displaying a (moving) three dimensional image |
| thruster n. (1949) | an engine that creates thrust, esp. a small rocket engine used to adjust the attitude or course of a spacecraft in flight |
| thud and blunder n. (1940) | (a disparaging term for) an adventure story that features violent exploits |
| tie-in n. (1949) | a book, film, or the like published to take advantage of the appearance of the same work in another medium |
| tight-beam n. (1930) | a highly focused energy beam, esp. one that conveys communications; a device that sends such a beam; a message sent by such a device |
| tight-beam v. (1959) | to send (esp. a message) by means of a tight-beam n.; to send to (someone) by means of a tight-beam n.; also intrans. |
| tight-beamed adj. (1951) | of a message: sent by means of a tight-beam n. |
| time n. (1866) | time viewed as a medium through which travel into the past or future is hypothesized or imagined to be possible |