Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of a set of objects resulting from the generalization of a two-dimensional square and a three-dimensional cube to n dimensions. A hypercube has 2n corners, each of which is connected to its n nearest adjacent corners by edges that all have the same length.
  • noun A network whose nodes have the connectivity of such an object.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A mathematical object existing in more than three dimensions, analogous to the cube in that each two-dimensional facet of the surface is a square; a generalization of a cube in more than three dimensions.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geometry A geometric figure in four or more dimensions, which is analogous to a cube in three dimensions. Specifically, the n-dimensional equivalent of a cube for any non-negative integer n.
  • noun geometry Such a figure in four dimensions; a tesseract.
  • noun computing A computer architecture in which each processor is connected to n others based on analogy to a hypercube of n dimensions.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From hyper- +‎ cube

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Examples

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  • Based on the Tesseract model. The concept of a tesseract, or four dimensional cube, is often used as an illustration of time travel, and might also give a clue to how a warp in time might occur. As the tesseract constantly moves, collapses in on itself and then expands again in a never ending loop, so does time move forward in a never ending line. If, however, an object or person was able to move from one line of this tesseract to another at any junction point, they would in essence be moving not with time, but in a straight line perpendicular to it. This movement has led many science fiction authors to juxtapose the thought not of time travel, but of being able to stop time and then start it again.

    (Wikipedia)

    May 21, 2008

  • In mathematics, I believe a hypercube is a four-dimensional surface; in one sense it is to an ordinary cube what a cube is to a two-dimensionsal square. Like other 4D objects, when rotated in 3-space, it appears to change shape, but I'm pretty sure that's the only way time is involved. You can perhaps imagine your way to the time-altering speculation from here.

    May 22, 2008