time capsule

American  

noun

• time capsules
  plural

1. a receptacle containing documents or objects typical of the current period, placed in the earth or in a cornerstone for discovery in the future.

---

time capsule British  

noun

1. a container holding articles, documents, etc, representative of the current age, buried in the earth or in the foundations of a new building for discovery in the future

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• time capsules
  plural

Etymology

Origin of time capsule

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

time capsule

When travelers enter Dulles International Airport, they pass through a time capsule from the Space Age.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

Along Front Street, Forestville’s tiny commercial core, you could get a corn dog for $3.30 at Carr’s Drive-Inn, which looks like a time capsule from 1979.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

Jay Nanninga, a National Institute of Standards and Technology mechanical engineer who designed the time capsule, had to address such storage issues.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

He then placed another Blue Peter badge into the foundation's time capsule in recognition of its 35th anniversary.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

The steps protested my weight with a symphony of shudders and creaks, but they held, and what I discovered upstairs—compared to the bombed-out ground floor, at least—was like a time capsule.

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs