Phrase guide

grandfather paradox

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The paradox of time travel in which inconsistencies emerge through changing the past.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From the paradox proposed by the French author René Barjavel in 1944 in his book Le Voyageur Imprudent, translated into English as Future Times Three; in its original form the paradox of one person going back to the past and killing their grandfather before the latter fathered the traveler's father, thus preventing the time traveler from ever being conceived in the first place.

Across languages

Translations

9 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 祖父悖論 /祖父悖论 (zǔfù bèilún) — type of paradox
  • Finnish: isoisäparadoksi — type of paradox
  • German: Großvaterparadoxon — type of paradox
  • German: Großvater-Paradoxon — type of paradox
  • Japanese: 祖父殺しのパラドックス — type of paradox
  • Mongolian: алагдсан өвөөгийн парадокс (alagdsan övöögiin paradoks) — type of paradox
  • Mongolian: өвөөгийн парадокс (övöögiin paradoks) — type of paradox
  • Polish: paradoks dziadka — type of paradox
  • Russian: парадо́кс уби́того де́душки (paradóks ubítovo déduški) — type of paradox