Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of long duration; continuing: chronic money problems.
- adj. Lasting for a long period of time or marked by frequent recurrence, as certain diseases: chronic colitis.
- adj. Subject to a habit or pattern of behavior for a long time: a chronic liar.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining or relating to time; having reference to time. Specifically
- Continuing a long time; inveterate or of long continuance, as a disease; hence, mild as to intensity and slow as to progress: in pathology, opposed to acute.
- Also, rarely, chronical.
- n. A chronicle.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of a problem, that continues over an extended period of time.
- adj. medicine Prolonged or slow to heal.
- adj. Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.
- adj. Inveterate or habitual.
- adj. informal Very bad, awful.
- adj. informal Extremely serious.
- adj. informal Good, great, as in "wicked"
- n. A chronic one
- n. slang Marijuana, typically of high quality.
- n. medicine A condition of extended duration, either continuous or marked by frequent recurrence. Sometimes implies a condition which worsens with each recurrence, though that is not inherent in the term.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Relating to time; according to time.
- adj. Continuing for a long time; lingering; habitual.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of long duration
- adj. habitual.
- adj. being long-lasting and recurrent or characterized by long suffering
Etymologies
- From chronical, from Old French chronique, from Latin chronicus, from Ancient Greek χρονικός (khronikos, "of time"), from χρόνος (khronos, "time"). (Wiktionary)
- French chronique, from Latin chronicus, from Greek khronikos, of time, from khronos, time. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Many patients hate the name chronic fatigue syndrome because they think it trivializes the condition.”
“A chronic inflammation of the stomach is a very common affection and has many phases, but the term chronic gastritis is applied only to that species of inflammation occasioned and accompanied by irritation.”
“The term "chronic" is used to indicate that this particular type of leukemia generally progresses slowly compared with the other leukemias, according to the”
“The procedure is named after the Italian doctor who spearheaded it, Dr. Paolo Zamboni, who coined the term chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency to describe the phenomenon he believes is behind MS. The idea is that blocked or narrowed veins trigger the debilitating illness, and he developed a procedure in which tiny balloons are inserted in the veins - a form of angioplasty.”
“Chronic Lyme is such an illnessWe use the term chronic Lyme throughout this talk, and any publications that result from this work, as it was the termuniversally preferred by the participants in our study.”
“This is because the term chronic pain is a wide spreading term that means many different things to different people.”
“Temperance advocates (and they were legion) argued that moderate drinking inevitably led to alcoholism (which they called chronic drunkenness or inebriation) in the same way that Alcoholics Anonymous today says alcohol effects the minority of drinkers who are alcoholics.”
The Huffington Post: Stanton Peele: We Don't Believe Alcohol's Good For You!
“Like Alan was saying earlier, we do know that there's an increased risk of developing what we call chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which is a cause of dementia later in life that is due to repetitive head trauma earlier in life.”
“When people are recovering from an illness, or when they are what we call chronic invalids, they often enjoy and are helped by being amused or occupied.”
“Diamond warned that the single currency's problems were not going to disappear - which he dubbed "chronic event risk", and said it was important to support David Cameron and George Osborne's efforts to put Britain's public finances back on track.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chronic’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 346 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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AGRI - sustainable agriculture
abiota, aborigines, absorptive capacity, acceptable daily ..., acclimation, acid precipitation, acquired by weeds..., active solar heating, acute, adaptation, additives, aerosol and 447 more...
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"IC" ending words
pendantic, elastic, autistic, archiac, civic, eccentric, aspic, basic, caustic, acoustic, anemic, antic and 17 more...
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Altered States Research Lab
Words and terms about (illicit) drugs and related subcultures.
reefer, golden brown, ganja, embalming fluid, shrooms, angel dust, bong, mescaline, handcuffs, padded cell, spliff, ecstasy and 79 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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chrono-, chron-
of or relating to time
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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Hiroe's Words
facetious, bardic, twatwaffle, cattywampus, splendiferous, zomg, merf, fwaa, fnord, tortify, schwiz, blort and 225 more...
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Spelling Bee list 2011
Abalone, ablution, absolution, aboriginally, abstemious, academician, acclamation, accommodation, acculturation, acetic, acetone, acme and 590 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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Basic Vocaulary
censure, appease, affable, conviction, heretical, mundane, exalted, detached, paradigm, charisma, conformity, allude and 96 more...
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List.001
New word list
imperative, republic, subtle, Androgynous, licentious, auspices, avengeance, cabal, sibilant, Entropy, caduceus, ludicrous, and 170 more...
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Greek Spelling Bee List
need to know these words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lethargy, biopsy, enthusiasm, odyssey, synonym, calypso, character, eclectic, chronology, cosmetic, cynical, hypothesis and 128 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chronic.
hernesheir A strain of medicinal marijuana. Jan 15, 2010