Meaning & use
FTL
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Meaning
abbreviationinformal
Short for faster than light, describing travel, communication or a drive that would move at a speed greater than that of light.
Grammar: Usually sits before a noun like an adjective: FTL travel, an FTL drive.
Patterns
- FTL travel
- an FTL drive
The crew's FTL drive let them cross the galaxy in a few days.
Physicists agree that real FTL travel would break the rules of relativity as we understand them.
The novel's plot depends on a ship that can make an FTL jump.
Common combinations
- FTL travel
- FTL travel is common in space operas but impossible in physics today.
- FTL drive
- The engineer repaired the FTL drive before the next jump.
- FTL communication
- Instant FTL communication would change how we talk across space.
- FTL jump
- The captain ordered an FTL jump away from the battle.
- FTL engine
- Nobody has designed a working FTL engine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- superluminal
- Superluminal is the formal scientific adjective and rarely appears in casual talk, while FTL is the shorthand fans and writers prefer.
- warp speed
- Warp speed is a phrase tied to one famous science-fiction setting and often used jokingly, whereas FTL is a neutral general label.
- hyperspace
- Hyperspace names an imagined route used to travel quickly, not the speed itself, which is what FTL describes.
Opposites
Word family
- superluminal adjective
- moving faster than light
- sublight adjective
- slower than the speed of light
- light-year noun
- the distance light covers in a year
Practice
In the story, the ship used an ___ drive to cross between star systems in a matter of hours.
Choose one answer.
FTL means faster than light, which suits a drive that crosses star systems in hours. The other abbreviations are real but do not describe a drive.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “FTL”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.