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What is the best way to describe the warp to someone who doesn't play 40k?

An extension of emotions in which reality is replaced with emotional energy...mostly hate in the 40k universe.

The Warp is a separate dimension of Raw energy and no actual physical matter. It is here where raw emotion and similar energy is invisibly channelled around in random directions, sort of like the ocean. Some Space Hulks and other ships jump in and out of the warp (Warpspace) to move around the galaxy faster, but the risk of being lost in it is always present. Psykers also are threatened by the warp whenever they use their powers, which is why so many of them turn over to chaos.

So. . . if I'm explaining to someone who has never heard of 40k, I should say its a separate dimension made of raw emotion. It has beings made of emotion that exist in it, some are very powerful(chaos gods). It also acts like an ocean, having currents which allowing for FTL travel, but at the risk that the crew will be killed by the warp and its inhabitants.
does that sound like a adequate explanation?

Spot on for explanation but some maybe like WUUUT....

It's a parallel dimension made from and containing the seething mass of emotions from every living creature in the galaxy. Clumps of particularly strong feelings can coalesce into sentient beings, known as demons. The four categories of feelings that are strongest and most potent have formed the overarching chaos gods, each with their own personality and sphere of influence, but there are some demons who don't belong to any of them. In some places, the boundry between the dimensions is weak and demons can spill out into the real world. Since the real world is fixed, logical and follows well defined physical laws, and chaos and the warp is the opposite of this, the meeting of the two opposites tends to cause massive devastation. People wanting faster than light travel can take a shortcut through the warp, since because it doesn't have physical laws one may find distant locations closer to each other and you can travel faster than light, but doing this is understandably dangerous.

Considering gw's location, it's "bloody ell mate!"

Or its the lesser conterpart to the waagh field