Dictionary

tesseract en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈtɛ.səˌɹækt/

Etymology

Word created by Charles Howard Hinton, in his book A New Era of Thought published in 1888, from Ancient Greek tessara- (“four-”) + Ancient Greek ἀκτίς (aktís, “ray”).

Meanings

1. The four-dimensional analogue of a cube; a 4D polytope bounded by eight cubes (analogously to the way a cube is bounded by six squares).
   • […]then it would trace out a higher cube, or tesseract, and each of the six surrounding cubes, carried on in the same motion, would trace tesseracts also,[…]. 1910, Henry Parker Manning, The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained, Munn, Incorporated, page 93:
   • Hence the cube determined by these axes is the face of the tesseract which we now have before us. 1906, Charles Howard Hinton, The Fourth Dimension, S. Sonnenschein & Company, page 239:
2. Any of various fictional mechanisms that explain extradimensional, superluminal, or time travel outside the geometry of the physical universe.
   • "I shall just sit down for a moment and pop on my boots and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, pet, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract." 1962, Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, published 2019, unnumbered page:
   • Cooper sees his younger self due to the tesseract in Interstellar. 2019 June 21, Marc Blancher, Marc Bonner, Colleen Boyle, Martin Butler, Jörg Hartmann, Alexander Hauk, Sophia Hauk, Thomas Hensel, Matthew H. Hersch, Ansgar Oswald, Nils Daniel Peiler, Umberto Rossi, We Are All Astronauts: The Image of the Space Traveler in Arts and Media, Neofelis Verlag, →ISBN, page 206:
   • When the Tesseract's energy levels spiked, Selvig proved unable to stop it and Loki arrived on Earth via a Tesseract-created portal. 2017 April 5, Mike O'Sullivan, Ohotmu Team, Marvel Cinematic Universe Guidebook: The Avengers Initiative, Marvel Entertainment, →ISBN:

Forms

Deriveds

tesseractic · octeract · dekeract · enneract

Hypernyms

polychoron · polytope · hypercube

Relateds

tessera

Synonyms

four-dimensional hypercube (analogue of a cube) · tetracube (analogue of a cube) · octachoron (analogue of a cube) · 4-cube (analogue of a cube) · 8-cell (analogue of a cube)

Translations (18)

cmn 四維超正方體 /四维超正方体 (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · es teseracto (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · is ferverpill (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · ja 正八胞体 (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · de Tesserakt (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · hi चतुरक्तु (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · sv tesserakt (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · ru тессеракт (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · pl tesserakt (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · mk тесеракт (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · cmn 正八胞體 /正八胞体 (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · fi tesserakti (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · pt tesserato (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · bg тесеракт (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · fr tesseract (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · is fjórvíður teningur (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · sk teserakt (four-dimensional analogue of a cube) · cs teserakt (four-dimensional analogue of a cube)