time paradox

[ tahym par-uh-doks ]

1. Also called tem·por·al par·a·dox. (in science fiction) a hypothetical contradiction of cause-and-effect within a timeline that results from traveling back in time, as in the bootstrap paradox or the grandfather paradox.
2. Sometimes par·a·dox of time. Physics, Thermodynamics. the contradiction between the concept of time in quantum physics, according to the theory of relativity, where processes are time-symmetric and reversible, and the concept of time in thermodynamics, according to the second law of thermodynamics, where processes have a direction and are irreversible.

Word History and Origins

Origin of time paradox¹

First recorded in 1905–10