Word.ws English Dictionary

atompunk

Syllables: atom·punk/ˈætəmpʌŋk/US/ˈætəmpʌŋk/

atompunk noun: a subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1969).

Noun

atompunk (uncountable)

  1. A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1969).
    • In fact, there was a fair amount of stuff around in the 60s and 70s that can only be explained as cross-dimensional leakage from an Atompunk universe.2001 October 31, Simon Bradshaw, “Re: Steampunk Recommendations?”, in rec.arts.sf.written (Usenet), message-ID <memo.20011031191447.43761C@sjbradshaw.compulink.co.uk>
    • Perfect "atompunk" feel – reactors with nervous engineers and analog controls.2002 June 10, Mike Simone, “Re: Land Battleships”, in rec.arts.sf.science, rec.games.design (Usenet), message-ID <152bbdf6.0206101038.72e312be@posting.google.com>

Examples of atompunk in a sentence

  • Analogies with steampunk might be "dieselpunk", "atompunk", or "rocketpunk" – but any Legion of Super-Heroes worthy of the name seems to be as far from the "punk" aspect as it's possible to get.2004 March 6, Michael S. Schiffer, “Re: Earth-2 Legion Synopsis”, in rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh (Usenet), message-ID...
  • According to a mailing list from the Netherlands, Atompunk is devoted to the cultural period (mostly of the United States) of between 1945 to 1965.2012 April 8, Elaine Chow, “Space Age Fetishism Getting Silly New Moniker: Atompunk”, in Gizmodo, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2016:
  • Atompunk covers the pre-digital period of 1945–1965, including mid-century Modernism, the Atomic Age and Space Age.2012, William J. Thompson, “Time Travel”, in Dress Like a Grownup!: A Complete Tutorial for the Average Guy, 2nd edition, volume 1...

Origin of atompunk

From atom + -punk.

Questions about atompunk

What does atompunk mean?
Atompunk means a subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the society and technology of the Atomic Age (c. 1945–1969).
How do you use atompunk in a sentence?
Analogies with steampunk might be "dieselpunk", "atompunk", or "rocketpunk" – but any Legion of Super-Heroes worthy of the name seems to be as far from the "punk" aspect as it's possible to get.
What part of speech is atompunk?
Atompunk is a noun.
How do you pronounce atompunk?
Atompunk is pronounced /ˈætəmpʌŋk/ (UK).

Words near atompunk in the dictionary

  1. atomologies
  2. atomology
  3. atomophobia
  4. atomoxetine
  5. atomphobia
  6. atompunk
  7. atoms
  8. atomsite
  9. atomtronic
  10. atomtronics
  11. atomus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: atompunk (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-atompunk.wav.

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