ansible
/ˈæn.sɪ.bəl/noun
ansible is spelled A-N-S-I-B-L-E: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 82,325th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ansible means “A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ansible is ansibles.
How many letters and syllables are in ansible?
| Letters | 7: A-N-S-I-B-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words; the 82,325th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ansible?
Ansible appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 82,325th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ansible?
- UK /ˈæn.sɪ.bəl/
- UK /ˈɑːn.sɪ.bəl/
Ansible has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What rhymes with ansible?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ansible (/ænsɪbəl/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lesbian.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ansible
- ansibles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ansible mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A hypothetical device that enables users to communicate instantaneously across great distances; that is, a faster-than-light communication device.
“You remember the ansible, the machine I showed you in the ship, which can speak instantly to other worlds, with no loss of years– […] ” “An ansible would theoretically be powered by subatomic particles that have undergone quantum entanglem
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ansible in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense hypothetical device:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ansible come from?
Coined by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin in 1966 in her novella Rocannon's World; Le Guin states that she derived it from answerable . The word was further spread by its adoption into other science fiction worlds, including by Orson Scott Card in Ender's Game (1986), Vernor Vinge in The Blabber (1988) and Dan Simmons in Hyperion (1989).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).