Definitions

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

  • noun An extremely rapid speed or state of activity.

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

  • literally, a speed faster than the speed of light; fig., an extremely high speed, usually the fastest possible; -- used only in the figurative sense except in fiction.

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

  • noun science fiction A hypothetical, extremely rapid, speed, resulting from entering a separate dimension, termed hyperspace; much faster than the speed of light.
  • noun by extension, informal Any very fast speed.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From warp speed, speed used for interstellar travel in the science fiction television series Star Trek, referring to the use of time or space warps.]

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  • “Warp speed” may be a term of the moment, thanks to the federal coronavirus vaccine program. But it’s also one with a history — which goes back farther than “Star Trek,” to a forgotten 1952 science fiction story in the pulp magazine Imagination.

    Ditto for “transporter,” “moon base” and “deep space,” to name just a few of the more than 400 words whose origins are getting pushed back earlier than their previously first appearance, thanks to the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, a new free online resource released on Tuesday.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/26/arts/science-fiction-dictionary.html

    Here’s a link to that dictionary of “more than 400 words”: https://sfdictionary.com

    January 27, 2021

  • I often misread this as wrap speed and feel like I am being dissed about my burrito making.

    January 27, 2021

  • 3Dscootie misread as 3Dfruiti ???

    February 5, 2021