steampunk means A subgenre of science fiction that depicts advanced technology combined with Victorian style and aesthetics, such as steam-powered machines and vehicles, visible gears and screws and people dressed in 19th-century attires.
steampunk is pronounced /ˈstiːm.pʌŋk/.
Why “steampunk” is a great word
A subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that imagines advanced technology powered by steam, set within the aesthetic and social milieu of the 19th century. From steam (referring to steam power) + -punk (as in cyberpunk), by analogy with cyberpunk; coined in 1987 by science-fiction writer K.W. Jeter. Unlike "cyberpunk" (which spins a dystopian future of gleaming chrome and data) or "dieselpunk" (which thrums to the raw, sooty pulse of interwar combustion engines), steampunk prefers the measured, ornate clatter of the piston and the flywheel. It is the hiss of a brass-valved automaton writing sonnets, the groan of a wooden airship navigating a smog-choked sky, and the satisfying, oiled click of a clockwork detective’s analytical engine—a nostalgic re-forging of progress from the brass, leather, and hope of a bygone century.
Etymology
From steam + -punk, by analogy with cyberpunk, coined by science-fiction writer Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) in a 1987 letter to the magazine Locus in response to a review of his book Infernal Devices published the same year (see the quotation below).
noun
- A subgenre of science fiction that depicts advanced technology combined with Victorian style and aesthetics, such as steam-powered machines and vehicles, visible gears and screws and people dressed in 19th-century attires.e.g.“There's railroad trains, a lot of steam-driven stuff, but that's about it. More ‘steam punk’, I suppose.”
- A writer of steampunk fiction.
- A person cosplaying as a steampunk character.e.g.“It wound up being an overwhelmingly positive experience that made me appreciate the steampunks around me even more.”
verb
- To depict in a steampunk manner.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- clockpunk 70% match — A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the technology and society of the Renaissance. vs steampunk →
- dieselpunk 67% match — A genre of science fiction and art that combines fictional retrofuturistic elements with the technology, culture, and aesthetics of the period of history beginning in the interbellum between World War I and World War II and ending around the 1950s (known as the "diesel era" within the dieselpunk community). vs steampunk →
- steamfunk 67% match — A subgenre of science fiction that combines elements of steampunk with a focus on Black culture and Afrofuturism. vs steampunk →
- sailpunk 64% match — A subgenre of speculative fiction, focusing on life at sea during the eras of exploration and piracy. vs steampunk →
- aetherpunk 64% match — A fantasy and science fiction genre that features magically enchanted weapons, armor, and machines. vs steampunk →
- silkpunk 62% match — A subgenre of science fiction that depicts advanced technology combined with East Asian aesthetics and philosophy. vs steampunk →
- decopunk 60% match — A subset of the dieselpunk science fiction genre and aesthetic that incorporates Art Deco elements and other aspects of the technology, culture, and fashion of the 1920s-1930s. vs steampunk →
- sandalpunk 57% match — A subgenre of speculative fiction, based on the technology and society of the Iron Age, especially the Roman Empire. vs steampunk →