noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A genre of science fiction and adventure fiction featuring a brilliant robust inventor, engineer or scientist hero who has an adventure in the wilds of the world, created from the mid-19th century to early 20th century, mostly American.

Synonyms

All synonyms

scientific romance

Etymology

From Edison + -ade, coined by Canadian author John Clute in 1993, after inventor Thomas Edison.

Related phrases

gaslight romancescience fictionspace opera

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.