space-timeadj.n.
/ˌspeɪsˈtʌɪm/, U.S. /ˌspeɪsˈtaɪm/ A. adj.
Relating to or situated in both space and time.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > [adjective] > space-time
space-time1893
spatio-temporal1900
spatial-temporal1903
spatio-temporalized1940
the world > time > [adjective] > space-time
space-time1893
1893 Philos. Rev. 2 489 Sensation..is that change of state of our ego which is localized, and thus belongs to the space-time content.
1938 Harper's Mag. Jan. 151/2 If you denounce him as a ‘Jew’, apart from his space-time characteristics, you perform a monstrous act.
1973 Nature 27 July 214/2 The projection of the most recent seismic migration wave..provides the basis for setting the space-time bounds on the next earthquake greater than magnitude 5.
2003 Lat. Amer. Antiq. 14 304/2 The regional variability in space-time distributions and the wide range of optical variability..make this method unsuitable.
B. n.
1. Physics. Time and three-dimensional space regarded as fused in a four-dimensional continuum or manifold containing all events; a particular form of this, as described in a cosmological theory or model. Frequently attributive.The concept of space-time was proposed explicitly in 1908 by H. Minkowski (see Minkowski n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > [noun] > space-time continuum
space-time1910
the world > matter > physics > relativity > space-time > [noun]
time-space1816
space-time1910
1910 Sci. Abstr. A. 13 415 The space-time conceptions of Minkowski in the four-dimensional space, or Minkowski's ‘world’.
1912 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 48 387 (title) The space-time manifold of relativity, the non-Euclidean geometry of mechanics and electromagnetics.
1927 S. Ertz Now East, now West viii. 117 I've got quite drunk on theories about the space-time continuum.
1934 E. Muir Coll. Poems (1960) 44 Lengthening league by league The ghastly thin anatomy of Space Time Stripped to the nerve.
1947 I. Asimov in Astounding Sci. Fiction Mar. 117/2 Fooling around with hyper~space isn't fun... We run the risk continually of blowing a hole in normal space-time fabric.
1988 J. D. Barrow & F. J. Tipler Anthropic Cosmol. Princ. (rev. ed.) iii. 216 The realm of general relativity is those space-times in which the Riemann curvature tensor is not identically zero.
2000 L. Smolin Three Roads to Quantum Gravity x. 139 John Wheeler used to say that on the Planck scale spacetime would no longer be smooth, but would resemble a foam.
2. A particular location at a particular time.
ΚΠ
1932 Jrnl. Philos. 29 147 In all of these cases, there is a diversity of concrete individuals (whether events, sequences, substances, relations, space-times).
1960 M. McLuhan Let. 23 Dec. (1987) 278 The space-time of a preliterate society is not the space-time of our electric one.
2000 Transition No. 80. 11/1 Between Kit's American landfall and Falk's farewell to the Bengal shore, it's clear that the Phanton's space-time is coterminous with European colonialism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1893