Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

Order by: alphabetical | chronological



Word Definition
time lord n. (1969) in the British television series Doctor Who: one of a race of humanoid aliens from the planet Gallifrey who are able to control time-travel technology
time machine n. (1894) a device capable of transporting a person backwards or forwards in time n.
time opera n. (1953) a subgenre of science fiction featuring adventure-driven, extravagantly dramatic plots based on time travel; a work in this genre
time paradox n. (1942) a paradox caused by an action of a time traveller which alters history so that the action is no longer logically possible, such as travelling into the past to murder a dictator which leads to a peaceful world from which the time traveller would have had no reason to depart; cf. grandfather paradox n., temporal paradox n.
time-path n. (1934) = timestream n.
time patrol n. (1955) = time police n.
time police n. (1950) officers who regulate time travel or other time-related phenomena; (specif.) officers who travel through time to attempt to prevent the past from being changed; a (government) body responsible for time-related phenomena
timequake n. (1954) a sudden significant disturbance in the continuity of time; cf. time storm n., time-slip n.
time radio n. (1934) a device that allows messages (but not physical objects) to be sent across time
time-slip n. (1941) a rift or flaw in the fabric of time that allows travel between two or more periods of time or timelines; any accidental or unexplained movement between periods of time; cf. timequake n., time storm n.
time storm n. (1942) a disturbance in time which can bring people and things from different times into the same timeline; cf. timequake n., time-slip n.
timestream n. (1931) the sequence of all events in time, considered notionally as a flow capable of being altered to form different timelines
time track n. (1931) = timeline n.
time travel n. (1914) the activity of travelling into the past or future; hypothetical movement through time n.
time travel v. (1933) to travel through time n.
time traveller n. (1894) one who travels through time n.
time-travelling n. (1894) the activity of travelling into the past or future; hypothetical movement through time
time-travelling adj. (1904) that or who travels through time n.
time viewer n. (1940) = chronoscope n.
time war n. (1950) = changewar n.
time warp n. (1937) an imaginary or hypothetical distortion of space-time by which people or objects at one point in time can be (instantly) moved to another, or within which time moves at a different speed
time warp v. (1969) transitive to transport (something) from one time to another by a time warp; also intransitive with reflexive or passive meaning
time-warped adj. (1938) transported from the past or future by a time warp n.
time-warping adj. (1940) that creates a time warp; that moves (something) through time; (also) of or relating to a time warp