Prefix · time / temporal order
Signals time or temporal relationship: chronological, chronology, chronicle, chronic, anachronism.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
Chrono- comes from Greek "chronos" (time, the Greek deity of time) and signals a relationship with time or temporal order: chronological = in the order events occurred in time; chronology = the study or recording of the order of events in time; chronicle = a historical record of events in temporal order; chronic = lasting a long time or recurring continuously (a chronic illness). A chronometer measures time with precision.
In medicine: chronic = long-lasting (opposite of "acute" = sudden onset); chronobiology = the study of biological rhythms and their relationship with time; anachronism = something out of its time (ana- = against/back + chronos = time). In culture: Chronos (the Greek deity of time), time travel narratives, the confusion between "Chronos" (time) and "Kronos" (the Titan father of Zeus in Greek mythology).
Attaches to nouns relating to time and history. Spanish equivalent is "crono-":
Pronunciation: /ˈkrɒnəʊ/. Spanish equivalent is "crono-" (cronológico, cronología, cronómetro). "Chronic" and "chronicle" lose the full prefix form but come from the same Greek root "chronos."
chrono-/ˈkrɒnəʊ/
Tap the button to hear how the prefix sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
"Chronic" (from Greek "chronos" = time) = persisting over a long time or recurring regularly. A chronic condition can be mild but persistent (chronic headaches = frequent, recurring headaches). The medical opposite is "acute" (= sudden onset, intense but not necessarily long-lasting). "Chronic" describes duration; "acute" describes onset pattern. Neither implies a specific severity level.
"Anachronism" (ana- = against/back + chronos = time) = something that is out of its proper time. A smartphone in a scene set in 1875 is an anachronism — it is a specifically temporal error. A "historical error" can be any factual mistake (wrong uniform, wrong name, wrong geography) — only temporal displacement is an anachronism.
A trick to remember it
Chrono- = "time": chronological = in order of time, chronology = the science of temporal order, chronicle = a historical record in time order, chronic = lasting a long time. Spanish: "crono-" (cronológico, cronómetro). Fun fact: "Chronos" (time) and "Kronos" (the Greek Titan father of Zeus) are different words that are often confused.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
"The film is full of ___ — there are smartphones visible in a scene set in 1875."
Exercise 3 · Pick the right one
What is the difference between "chronic" and "acute" in medicine?
The prefix chrono- signals time or temporal relationship: chronological, chronology, chronicle, chronic, anachronism. In Spanish it usually maps to crono-.
The prefix chrono- is pronounced /ˈkrɒnəʊ/. For example, "chronological".
"logical" becomes "chronological". It is a typical example of the chrono- prefix.
un-, re-, pre-, dis-, over-, in-... every beginning you need to unlock thousands of English words at once.