noun · 3 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
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
/ˈhaɪpəɹˌtɛkst/
US:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:HH AY1 P ER0 T EH2 K S T
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
Digital text in which the reader may navigate related information through embedded hyperlinks.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Examples
1995, Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", WIRED Did Nelson realize at the time that he had met Xanadu's second parent? Probably not. The inventor scattered his ideas as widely as possible, with little care about where they landed. But as the decades passed, it would be Gregory who oversaw the attempt to transform Xanadu into a real product. He never received much public notice, but through all the project's painful deaths and rebirths, Gregory's commitment to Nelson's dream of a universal hypertext library never waned. If Ted Nelson is Xanadu's profligate father, Roger Gregory is Xanadu's devoted mother, and in retrospect, his role appears to have been intertwined with a terrible element of sacrifice.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A hypertext document.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
machine-readable text that is not sequential but is organized so that related items of information are connected--Ted Nelson
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
Let me introduce the word hypertext to mean a body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: machine-readable text
History
Etymology
From hyper- + text; coined by American information technologist, philosopher, and sociologist Ted Nelson in 1965.
Across languages
Translations
37 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Arabic:
هَايْبَرْتِكْسْت
(haybartekst)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Catalan:
hipertext
— uncountable: text for the Web
Chinese Mandarin:
超文本
(chāowénběn)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Chinese Mandarin:
超文字
(chāowénzì)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Czech:
hypertext
— uncountable: text for the Web
Danish:
hypertekst
— uncountable: text for the Web
Esperanto:
hiperteksto
— uncountable: text for the Web
Finnish:
hyperteksti
— uncountable: text for the Web
French:
hypertexte
— uncountable: text for the Web
Galician:
hipertexto
— uncountable: text for the Web
Georgian:
ჰიპერტექსტი
(hiṗerṭeksṭi)
— uncountable: text for the Web
German:
Hypertext
— uncountable: text for the Web
Greek:
υπερκείμενο
(yperkeímeno)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Icelandic:
stiklutexti
— uncountable: text for the Web
Ido:
hipertexto
— uncountable: text for the Web
Italian:
ipertesto
— uncountable: text for the Web
Japanese:
超文面
(chōbunmen)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Japanese:
ハイパーテキスト
(haipātekisuto)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Korean:
하이퍼텍스트
(haipeotekseuteu)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Korean:
초본문
(chobonmun)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Macedonian:
хипертекст
(hipertekst)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Malay:
hiperteks
— uncountable: text for the Web
Polish:
hipertekst
— uncountable: text for the Web
Portuguese:
hipertexto
— uncountable: text for the Web
Russian:
гиперте́кст
(gipertékst)
— uncountable: text for the Web
Spanish:
hipertexto
— uncountable: text for the Web
Swedish:
hypertext
— uncountable: text for the Web
Turkish:
hipermetin
— uncountable: text for the Web
Turkish:
hipertekst
— uncountable: text for the Web
Chinese Mandarin:
超文本
(chāowénběn)
— countable: hypertext document
Chinese Mandarin:
超文件
(chāowénjiàn)
— countable: hypertext document
French:
document m hypertexte
— countable: hypertext document
