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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ansible.

A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈæn.sɪ.bəl/UK/ˈɑːn.sɪ.bəl/UK
  1. A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.

Where this word comes from

Coined by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin in 1966 in her novella Rocannon's World; Le Guin states that she derived it from answerable . The word was further spread by its adoption into other science fiction worlds, including by Orson Scott Card in Ender's Game (1986), Vernor Vinge in The Blabber (1988) and Dan Simmons in Hyperion (1989).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.