teleportationn.
/ˌtɛlᵻpɔːˈteɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌtɛləˌpɔrˈteɪʃən/ 1. Originally: the supposed movement of a person or thing by psychic power or other paranormal means; an instance of this. Later chiefly in Science Fiction and other hypothetical contexts: instantaneous transportation from one place to another, esp. by means of a machine which breaks matter down into its constituent particles or converts it to energy, information, etc., and transmits it in this form to another location where it is reconstituted.
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society > travel > transport > transport by psychic or futuristic means > [noun]
teleportation1931
transporter1940
teleporting1946
teletransportation1946
teleportage1951
magnetic levitation1966
maglev1973
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > psychokinesis > teleportation
teleportation1931
teletransportation1946
1931 C. Fort Lo! i. iv. 42 Sometimes, in what I call ‘teleportations’, there seems to be ‘agency’ and sometimes not.
1944 ‘L. Padgett’ in Astounding Sci.-Fiction Nov. 89/1 Teleportation? Quat showed me last night. He can't do it himself, but I'm X Free super so I can. The power isn't disciplined yet.
1945 N. Collins London belongs to Me iv. liv. 421 The weekly copy of The Spirit World lay on the occasional table... They were wonderful letters—full of glimpses through the veil, and teleportations and proofs of survival.
1951 ‘J. Wyndham’ in Sci.-Fantasy Winter 8 Suppose the Russians..could project things or people here by teleportation.
1960 Analog Sci. Fact & Fiction Nov. 14/1 It took a latent ability to learn teleportation, and some people had it while others didn't.
1977 ‘L. Egan’ Blind Search i. 4 Telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, apports, whatever the hell psychic forces.
1991 J. Mander In Absence of Sacred ii. x. 186 Teleportation, as in the ‘beam-down’ machine in ‘Star Trek’.
2011 Daily Tel. 11 Mar. 6/3 Nearly a quarter of those surveyed thought teleportation was a real mode of transport.
2. Physics. A method of transferring a given quantum state from one particle to another by means of entanglement (entanglement n. Additions); = quantum teleportation n. at quantum n. and adj. Compounds 2.Teleportation in this sense is typically achieved by entangling the particle whose quantum state is to be transferred with one of a pair of already entangled particles in such a way that the remaining particle adopts that quantum state.
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1993 New Scientist 3 Apr. 12/3 Stocks of entangled electrons and other particles could be shared between teleportation centres in advance. That would allow copies of particles to be built from information transferred at the speed of light. To the recipient, it would be as good as if the original particle had been transferred. ‘That is why we call it teleportation,’ he says.
2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 17 June a21/1 The feat of teleportation is transferring information from atom A to atom C without the two meeting. The third atom, B, is an intermediary.
2011 J. Gleick Information xiii. 365 The key to teleportation and to so much of the quantum information science that followed is the phenomenon known as entanglement.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1931