Word.ws English Dictionary

steamfunk

steamfunk noun: a subgenre of science fiction that combines elements of steampunk with a focus on Black culture and Afrofuturism.

Noun

steamfunk (uncountable)

  1. A subgenre of science fiction that combines elements of steampunk with a focus on Black culture and Afrofuturism.
    • By reimagining the past, Nisi Shawl’s steamfunk novel “Everfair” soars towards a feminist, afrofuturist vision of liberational technology.2016 November 19, Ida Yoshinaga, Lynette James, “Labors of Hope and Liberation: Nisi Shawl’s Steamfunk Novel “Everfair””, in Los Angeles Review of Books

Origin of steamfunk

Blend of steampunk + funk. Popularized by the 2013 short story anthology Steamfunk! co-edited by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade.

Questions about steamfunk

What does steamfunk mean?
Steamfunk means a subgenre of science fiction that combines elements of steampunk with a focus on Black culture and Afrofuturism.
What part of speech is steamfunk?
Steamfunk is a noun.

Words near steamfunk in the dictionary

  1. steameth
  2. steamfitter
  3. steamfitters
  4. steamfitting
  5. steamfittings
  6. steamfunk
  7. steamie
  8. steamier
  9. steamies
  10. steamiest
  11. steamily

Source and license

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