Definition of steampunk
: science fiction dealing with 19th-century societies dominated by historical or imagined steam-powered technology
From the M-W Editors
steampunk was our Word of the Day on 07/16/2014. Hear the podcast!
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Recent Examples of steampunk from the Web
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Voltaire, who was born in Cuba and now lives in New York City, is popular among practitioners of steampunk.
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Shakespeare goes steampunk in an imagining of his youth.
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Think completely renovated carriage house next to a historical, Victorian mansion with a twist: a modern steampunk penthouse.
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Portland author David D. Levine’s delightful Jane Austen-meets-steampunk debut novel won the 2017 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards’ 2017 young adult literature award.
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The real attention-getter here, though, is Colin Cunningham, who is hilariously invested in his role as Julian Slink, a sort of steampunk master of ceremonies for the race.
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The Great Midwestern Ballyhoo and Gala: Steampunk performers and vendors join bands and food trucks from 1 to 11 p.m. Sept. 23 in the south Public Landing parking lot and near the Illinois State Museum.
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With wardrobes spanning from fur, metal and leather to fine silks, steampunk goggles and prosthetic masks, this is by far the most visually sophisticated and rewarding DC movie yet.
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The first is a woefully distended scene of hermetic fantasy that matters only for its payoff: a steampunk wall panel does weird things to Agent Cooper (and, in the conceit’s one droll touch, leaves him, or a version of him, shoeless).
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'steampunk.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for [Tim] Powers, [James] Blaylock and myself. So wrote the science-fiction author K. W. Jeter, credited with coining the term steampunk in 1987 to describe a wave of fantasy novels set in Victorian times and celebrating the technology of the era, much of which was powered by steam. In both name and subject, steampunk is an antithesis to cyberpunk, a genre often noted for featuring computerized, futuristic, or unearthly settings. The popularity of steampunk has since carried over to motion pictures, fashion, and even things like restaurant décor.
Origin and Etymology of steampunk
1steam + cyberpunk
Seen and Heard
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