spacetime

See also: space-time

English

the 'fabric' of spacetime

Alternative forms

• space-time
• time-space

Etymology

From space +‎ time, as a calque of German Raumzeit, introduced in this sense by Hermann Minkowski. First appears in print c. 1893 in the Philosophical Review.

Noun

spacetime (countable and uncountable, plural spacetimes)

1. (uncountable, physics) The four-dimensional continuum of the three spatial dimensions plus time.

   An event is a point in spacetime, specified by the coordinates x, y, z, and t.

2. (physics) An n-dimensional continuum consisting of dimensions of both space and time. Normally spacetime is considered as having 4 dimensions (x, y, z, t), but higher-dimensional spacetimes are often encountered in theoretical physics, e.g. the 5-dimensional spacetime of Kaluza-Klein theory or the 11 dimensions of spacetime in M-theory.

   a Minkowski spacetime

   a 5-dimensional spacetime

3. (relativity) A specific region of the universe with mathematically different properties than the surrounding spacetime. Synonymous with "metric" within the context of general relativity.

   a Schwarzschild spacetime

   a Reissner-Nordström spacetime

Coordinate terms

• temporospatial
• spatiotemporal

Derived terms

• absolute space-time
• spacetime metric
• spacetime physics
• spacetime singularity

 

Translations

four dimensional continuum

• Afrikaans: ruimtetyd
• Albanian: hapësirë-koha
• Arabic: زَمَكَان m (zamakān)

  Egyptian Arabic: سبيس-تايم (speys-taim)

• Armenian: տարածաժամանակային կոնտինուում (taracažamanakayin kontinuum), տարածաժամանակ (taracažamanak)
• Asturian: espaciu-tiempu m
• Azerbaijani: məkan-zaman
• Basque: espazio-denbora
• Belarusian: прастора-час f (prastóra-čas)
• Bengali: স্থান-কাল (sthan-kal)
• Bulgarian: пространство-време n (prostranstvo-vreme)
• Burmese: အာကာသအချိန် (akasa.a.hkyin)
• Catalan: espai-temps, espaitemps m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 時空／时空 (si⁴ hung¹)

  Mandarin: 時空／时空 (zh) (shí-kōng)

• Chuvash: уҫлӑх-вӑхӑт (uślăh-văh̬ăt)
• Czech: časoprostor (cs) m
• Danish: rumtid c
• Dutch: ruimte-tijd, ruimtetijd (nl), tijd-ruimte, tijdruimte
• Esperanto: spactempo
• Estonian: aegruum
• Finnish: aika-avaruus
• French: espace-temps (fr)
• Galician: espazo-tempo m
• Georgian: სივრცე-დრო (sivrce-dro)
• German: Raumzeit (de) f
• Greek: χωροχρόνος (el) m (chorochrónos)
• Hebrew: מרחב-זמן
• Hindi: दिक्काल (dikkāl), दिक्-काल (dik-kāl)
• Hungarian: téridő (hu)
• Icelandic: tímarúm n
• Ido: spacotempo
• Indonesian: ruang waktu
• Interlingua: spatiotempore
• Irish: spás-am
• Italian: spaziotempo (it) m, spaziotemporalità (it) f
• Japanese: 時空 (ja) (じくう, jikū)
• Kazakh: уақыт-кеңістік (uaqyt-keñıstık)
• Korean: 시공간 (ko) (sigonggan)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کاتجێ (katcê)

• Latvian: laiktelpa f
• Lithuanian: erdvėlaikis (lt) m
• Macedonian: време-простор m (vreme-prostor)
• Malay: ruang-masa
• Malayalam: സ്ഥലകാലം (sthalakālaṁ), സ്ഥൂലകാലത (sthūlakālata)
• Marathi: अवकाशकाल (avkāśkāl), काल-अवकाश (kāl-avkāś)
• Norwegian: romtid, tidrom
• Occitan: espacitemps m
• Pashto: تشيال وخت
• Persian: فضازمان (fazâ-zamân)
• Polish: czasoprzestrzeń (pl) f
• Portuguese: espaço-tempo (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਸਪੇਸਟਾਈਮ (sapesṭāīma)
• Quechua: pacha (qu)
• Romanian: spațiu-timp n
• Russian: простра́нство-вре́мя (ru) n (prostránstvo-vrémja)
• Scottish Gaelic: spàs-àm m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: просторвријеме n, просторвреме n

  Roman: prostorvrijeme n, prostorvreme n

• Sinhalese: අවකාශ කාලය (awakāśa kālaya)
• Slovak: priestoročas, časopriestor
• Slovene: prôstor-čàs m
• Spanish: espacio-tiempo m
• Swedish: rumtid (sv) c
• Tagalog: espasyo-panahon
• Tajik: фазо-замон (fazo-zamon)
• Tamil: வெளிநேரம் (veḷinēram)
• Thai: กาล-อวกาศ, ปริภูมิ-เวลา
• Turkish: uzayzaman (tr)
• Ukrainian: простір-час m (prostir-čas)
• Urdu: زمان و مکاں
• Uzbek: fazo-vaqt
• Venetan: spàçiotenpo m
• Vietnamese: không-thời gian (vi)
• Welsh: gofod-amser
• Western Panjabi: سپیس ٹائیم (spes ṭā'īm)

See also

• time-distance

Further reading

• spacetime on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• empaestic, timescape