First coined in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a portmanteau of "meta" and "universe", the word today has an everchanging definition depending on who you talk to. We subscribe to metaverse visionary Tony Parisi's explanation:
There is only one Metaverse. It is the sum total of all publicly accessible virtual worlds, real-time 3D content, and related media that are connected on an open global network, controlled by none and accessible to all.