Word.ws English Dictionary

timelike

timelike adjective: of a four-vector in representing a point in spacetime, having a positive or negative four-vector norm for the metric signature (+, -, -, -) and (-, +, +, +) respectively.

Adjective

timelike (comparative more timelike, superlative most timelike)

  1. Of a four-vector in representing a point in spacetime, having a positive or negative four-vector norm for the metric signature (+, -, -, -) and (-, +, +, +) respectively.
  2. (of the interval between two events in spacetime) Having overlapping light cones, so that information can pass from one to the other, and one can be envisaged as a cause of the other.

Forms of timelike

comparativemore timelike
superlativemost timelike
alternative formtime-like

Origin of timelike

From time + -like.

Words formed from timelike

  • closed timelike curve
  • future directed timelike vector
  • past directed timelike vector
  • timelike component
  • timelike congruence
  • timelikeness
  • timelike path
  • timelike vector field

Phrases with timelike

Questions about timelike

What does timelike mean?
Timelike means of a four-vector in representing a point in spacetime, having a positive or negative four-vector norm for the metric signature (+, -, -, -) and (-, +, +, +) respectively.
What part of speech is timelike?
Timelike is an adjective.

Words near timelike in the dictionary

  1. timelessly
  2. timelessness
  3. timelessnesses
  4. timelier
  5. timeliest
  6. timelike
  7. timelikeness
  8. timelily
  9. timelimit
  10. timelimits
  11. timeline

Source and license

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