Subject: Time Travel
Terms relating to time travel.
| Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| alternate future n. (1941) | in time-travel contexts: one of a number of possible futures; cf. slightly earlier alternative future n. |
| alternative future n. (1932) | = alternate future n. |
| anywhen adv. (1941) | (in relation to time travel) in or to any point in time |
| changewar n. (1958) | a conflict in which participants engage in time travel in order to alter history to effect a desired timeline |
| chrononaut n. (1960) | = time traveller n. |
| chronoscope n. (1936) | a device for viewing events in the past or future |
| chronoscopy n. (1956) | viewing past or future events |
| downtime adj. (1978) | esp. in time-travel contexts: in or from the past; cf. uptime adj. |
| downtime adv. (1972) | esp. in time-travel contexts: in, into, or toward the past; cf. uptime adv. |
| elsewhen n. (1943) | (in time-travel contexts) another time |
| elsewhen adv. (1940) | (in time-travel contexts) at or to another point in time |
| everywhen n. (1942) | (in time-travel contexts) all points in time |
| everywhen adv. (1943) | (in time-travel contexts) in or to all points in time |
| flux capacitor n. (1981) | in the film Back to the Future and its sequels: the core component of the time machine made of a DeLorean automobile |
| grandfather paradox n. (1939) | a paradox concerning the implications of time travel, expressed by the idea that a time traveller could potentially go back into the past and (deliberately or inadvertently) kill his or her grandfather, thus preventing the time travellerβs existence and the possibility of having travelled back into the past in the first place; cf. time paradox n. |
| Jonbar adj. (1977) | in time-travel or alternate-history contexts: denoting a point at which a (trivial) action can result in a significantly different timeline (chiefly in form Jonbar hinge, Jonbar point) |
| nowhen adv. (1982) | (in time-travel contexts): in or at no time |
| somewhen adv. (1894) | in time-travel contexts: another time; in or to another time |
| TARDIS n. 1 (1963) | in the British television series Doctor Who: a time machine having the outward form of a police telephone box; (hence) any means of travelling through time |
| temporal loop n. (1975) | = time loop n. |
| temporal paradox n. (1954) | = time paradox n. |
| 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 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 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. |
| 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) | a 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 |