Word.ws English Dictionary

ansible

UK/ˈæn.sɪ.bəl/

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

Noun

ansible (plural ansibles)

  1. A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.
    • “You remember the ansible, the machine I showed you in the ship, which can speak instantly to other worlds, with no loss of years– […] ”
    • “An ansible would theoretically be powered by subatomic particles that have undergone quantum entanglement, which utilizes Einstein's 'spooky action at a distance', allowing the alteration of one particle to instantaneously alter the state of its paired particle. […] ”1966, Ursula K. Le Guin, Rocannon's World, reprinted in Worlds of Exile and Illusion, Macmillan (1996), page 25

Examples of ansible in a sentence

  • “[…] The master ansible is there, in contact with all our invasion fleet; the ships are all working, ready to fight. […]”1985, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game, reprinted by Macmillan, published 2002, →ISBN, page 251:
  • Ky had allotted two hours here, time to strip the news from the ansible, share it, even discuss it, but she didn’t plan to have everyone clustered and vulnerable.2008, Elizabeth Moon, Victory Conditions, reprint by Random House, published 2009, →ISBN, page 39:

Forms of ansible

pluralansibles

Origin of ansible

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).

Questions about ansible

What does ansible mean?
Ansible means a hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.
How do you use ansible in a sentence?
“[…] The master ansible is there, in contact with all our invasion fleet; the ships are all working, ready to fight. […]”
What part of speech is ansible?
Ansible is a noun.
How do you pronounce ansible?
Ansible is pronounced /ˈæn.sɪ.bəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of ansible?
The plural of ansible is ansibles.

Words near ansible in the dictionary

  1. Anshuman
  2. Anshun
  3. Anshur
  4. ANSI
  5. ANSI art
  6. ansible
  7. ansibles
  8. Ansichow
  9. ansiform
  10. anslaight
  11. anslaights

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ansible (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ansible.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ansible. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.