Chronological

/ˌkrɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkəl/

adjectiveIntermediate📊CommonGeneral
1 meaning2 questions

Definitions

1

Arranged in the order in which things happened; according to the passage of time.

/ˌkrɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkəl/

adjectiveneutralIntermediate
General

Arranged in order of time.

The museum displays the artifacts in chronological order, starting with the earliest.

💡 Simply: Imagine a timeline of events – that's chronological order. Like listing your birthday each year, oldest to newest!

👶 For kids: In the order things happened.

More Examples

2

She wrote a chronological account of her family's history.

How It's Used

History

"The events were presented in chronological order."

Biography

"His autobiography recounts his life in a chronological sequence."

From Middle French chronologique, from Late Latin chronologicus, from Greek khronologikos, from khronos "time" + -logikos "relating to" or "study of".

The term has been used in its current sense since at least the 17th century.

Memory tip

Think 'chrono' (time) + 'logical' (order).

Word Origin

LanguageGreek
Original meaning

"chronos (time) + -logos (study of)"

chronological orderchronological sequencechronological age

Common misspellings

chronologicalycronologicalchonological

Usage

20%Spoken
80%Written