Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
Order by: alphabetical | chronological
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| time n. (1866) | time viewed as a medium through which travel into the past or future is hypothesized or imagined to be possible |
| time barrier n. (1933) | something (either inherent or created) that prevents travel through time |
| time binding n. (1921) | in General Semantics: the characteristically human ability to transmit knowledge to succeeding generations by means of (written) language; (hence, in Fandom) the act of documenting fannish activities |
| time cop n. (1953) | a member of the time police n. |
| time crime n. (1955) | a violation of time travel laws, esp. an illegal attempt to change the past; such violations collectively; cf. time police n. |
| time fault n. (1934) | a disturbance in time; a place where time travel is possible, or where time progresses in unpredictable ways; cf. time-slip n., time storm n. |
| time hopper n. 1 (1955) | = time machine n. |
| time hopper n. 2 (1967) | = time traveller n. |
| timeline n. (1935) | the set of all events from past to future, esp. when regarded as one of many possible such sets |
| time loop n. (1936) | a (short) repeating period of time, typically one which (some) people are aware they are experiencing repeatedly |
| 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 or sensible, such as travelling into the past to kill 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 that 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. |