wormhole

English

Alternative forms

• worm-hole
• worme-hole (obsolete)

Etymology

1590s. From worm +‎ hole. In the scientific sense, introduced by John Archibald Wheeler in 1957.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

wormhole (plural wormholes)

1. A hole burrowed by a worm.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC:

     To fill with worme-holes stately monuments.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 36:

     But he had no sooner got through the worm-hole, than the lad put a small peg in the hole.

2. (relativity) A hypothetical shortcut between two points in spacetime, permitting faster-than-light travel and sometimes time travel.
   • 1957 December, Charles W. Misner, John Archibald Wheeler, “Classical Physics as Geometry”, in Annals of Physics, volume 2, number 6, pages 525–603:

     […] where there is a net flux of lines of force, through what topologists would call "a handle" of the multiply-connected space, and what physicists might perhaps be excused for more vividly terming a "wormhole".

   • 1979, Alan Dean Foster, Harold Livingston, directed by Robert Wise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, spoken by Commander Willard Decker (Stephen Collins):

     Wormhole distortion has overloaded main power systems!

   • 2001, Ron Wilkerson, “Red Sky”, in Martin Wood, director, Stargate SG-1, season 5, episode 5, spoken by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping):

     I think the wormhole that we used to travel here passed directly through this planet's sun.

3. (programming, slang) A location in a monitor program containing the address of a routine, allowing the user to substitute different functionality.

Synonyms

• (a spacetime construct): Einstein-Rosen bridge

Related terms

• (a spacetime construct): black hole, white hole

Translations

a hole burrowed by a worm

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蟲洞／虫洞 (zh) (chóngdòng)

• Finnish: madonreikä
• French: trou de ver (fr) m
• German: Wurmloch (de) n
• Irish: poll péiste m
• Macedonian: црвоточина f (crvotočina)
• Russian: червото́чина (ru) f (červotóčina)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: црвото̀чина f

  Roman: crvotòčina (sh) f

• Spanish: agujero de gusano m
• Swedish: maskhål (sv) n

a shortcut between distant parts of space

• Arabic: ثَقْب دُودِيّ m (ṯaqb dūdiyy), مَمَرّ دُودِيّ m (mamarr dūdiyy)
• Basque: zizare zulo
• Catalan: forat de cuc m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蟲洞／虫洞 (zh) (chóngdòng), 蛀孔 (zh) (zhùkǒng), 蠹孔 (dùkǒng)

• Czech: červí díra f
• Finnish: madonreikä
• French: trou de ver (fr) m
• German: Wurmloch (de) n
• Hebrew: חור תולעת / חֹר תּוֹלַעַת (he) m (khor toláat)
• Hungarian: féreglyuk (hu)
• Irish: poll péiste m
• Italian: cunicolo (it) m
• Japanese: ワームホール (wāmuhōru)
• Korean: 웜홀 (womhol)
• Macedonian: црвоточина f (crvotočina)
• Polish: tunel czasoprzestrzenny m
• Portuguese: buraco de verme m, buraco de minhoca m (Brazil), fenda espacial f, túnel espacial m
• Russian: крото́вая нора́ f (krotóvaja norá) (mole hole), крото́вина (ru) f (krotóvina), червото́чина (ru) f (červotóčina)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: црвото̀чина f

  Roman: crvotòčina (sh) f

• Spanish: agujero de gusano m
• Swedish: maskhål (sv) n
• Turkish: solucan deliği
• Vietnamese: lỗ sâu, lỗ giun

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Georgian: ^{(please verify)} ჭიანაჭამი (č̣ianač̣ami)

Verb

wormhole (third-person singular simple present wormholes, present participle wormholing, simple past and past participle wormholed)

1. (transitive) To make porous or permeable through the formation of small holes or tunnels.