hypertext

noun

hy·per·text ˈhī-pər-ˌtekst

: a database format in which information related to that on a display can be accessed directly from the display

also : material (such as text) in this format

hypertextual

ˌhī-pər-ˈteks-chə-wəl

-chəl

adjective

Did you know?

Since hyper- generally means "above, beyond", hypertext is something that's gone beyond the limitations of ordinary text. Thus, unlike the text in a book, hypertext permits you, by clicking with a mouse, to immediately access text in one of millions of different electronic sources. Hypertext is now so familiar that most computer users may not even know the word, which was coined by Ted Nelson back in the early 1960s. It took a few more years for hypertext to actually be created, by Douglas Engelbart, and then quite a few more years before the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991.