cyberpunk
/ˈsaɪ.bɚˌpʌŋk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.76 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A subgenre of science fiction which focuses on computer or information technology and virtual reality juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.
Uncountable
noun
A musical genre related to the punk movement that makes use of electronic sounds such as synthesizers.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "But by 1987, cyberpunk had become a cliche. Other writers had turned the form into formula: implant wetware (biological computer chips), government by multinational corporations, street-wise, leather-jacketed, amphetamine-loving protagonists and decayed orbital colonies."
- "Cyberpunk stories are set in a futuristic, dystopic environment—the opposite of utopian—in which computer technology plays an important role. […] The protagonists of cyberpunk stories are technologically proficient, lonely adventurers struggling with issues of identity and forced to use computer skills to fight menacing forces of domination."
- "The film The Matrix redefined what a cyberpunk looked like."
- "[…] cyberpunks like William Gibson, Lucious Sheperd^([sic]), Bruce Sterling […]"
- "A more technologically elaborate current of microtonal music can be found at M.I.T and Berklee College of Music, where R. Boulanger works in exotic equal temperaments and non-octave scales (E₆₀ and the 13th root of 3, i.e. the Bohlen-Pierce scale) using the CSOUND acoustic compiler, the Mathews radio drum and various MIDI synthesizers; nearby, E. Mullen performs cyberpunk music in E₁₉ and the 13th root of 3."
- "At Meredith we stayed up all night listening to doof doof cyberpunk music and I saw you cry for the first time, at four in the morning bottle of ice tea and vodka in hand I saw your real face and something changed."
Etymology
From cyber- + -punk, coined by American writer and software developer Bruce Bethke as the title of a 1983 short story, and later popularized by Gardner Dozois.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsaɪ.bɚˌpʌŋk/
- British English: /ˈsaɪ.bə.pʌŋk/