Meanings
- informaluncountablefictionAny hypothetical but unobtainable material with desirable engineering properties.
She writes romantic fantasy and science fiction, and makes liberal use of the substance known as handwavium.
2012, Imogen Howson, Blood of the Volcano, Cincinnati, Oh.: Samhain Publishing, →ISBN, page 1672 more examples
My handwavium was an invented mineral, but - reading up - what about platinum? Could I substitute platinum for handwavium?
2008 February 3, Jacey Bedford <jacey@artisan-harmony.com>, “Handwavium”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet)It made no sense to him that their very impossibility was their pleasure. He puzzled over the spacecraft and their handwavium drives. "The thousand and one nights of Scheherazade, told by an engineering student who failed his graduation exams," was his literary judgment.
2008 March, Alexander Jablokov, “The Boarder”, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 114, number 3, Concord, N.H.: Fantasy House, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9Synonyms: unobtainium
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny hypothetical but unobtainable material with desirable engineering properties.
Origin
From hand waving + -ium (“the chemical element suffix”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
handwavium. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handwavium
“handwavium.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handwavium. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “handwavium,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/handwavium.
Source: handwavium on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.