Word.ws English Dictionary

fanspeak

/ˈfæn.spiːk/

fanspeak noun: the jargon used by science fiction fans.

Noun

fanspeak (uncountable)

  1. (informal) The jargon used by science fiction fans.
    • fanspeak: The language, typography, and cliches of fandom. Term is derived from "newspeak," the language of the future, in George Orwell's 1984.1952, Arthur Rapp, Lee Hoffman, Redd Boggs, Fanspeak, page 5
    • The "lack" in the narrative's central relationship produces UST (fanspeak for "unresolved sexual tension") and more, a space for sublimated discourse about body and gender politics...2000, Elyce Rae Helford, Fantasy girls, page 64
  2. (broadly, informal) The jargon used by fans of any genre of fiction or popular culture in general.

Origin of fanspeak

From fan + -speak, modeled after Newspeak.

Questions about fanspeak

What does fanspeak mean?
Fanspeak means the jargon used by science fiction fans.
What part of speech is fanspeak?
Fanspeak is a noun.
How do you pronounce fanspeak?
Fanspeak is pronounced /ˈfæn.spiːk/.

Words near fanspeak in the dictionary

  1. fanslators
  2. Fansler
  3. Fanslers
  4. Fanson
  5. Fansons
  6. fanspeak
  7. fansplain
  8. fansplained
  9. fansplaining
  10. fansplains
  11. fanstuff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanspeak (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: “fanspeak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fanspeak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.