Standard Lemma guide

diachronic

adj · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /daɪ.əˈkɹɒnɪk/
  • US: /daɪ.əˈkɹɑnɪk/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Occurring over or changing with time.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: synchronic

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of, pertaining to or concerned with changes that occur over time.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 2012, Paolo Ramat, Sturtevant's paradox revisited, Thomas Stolz, Hitomi Otsuka, Aina Urdze, Johan van der Auwera (editors), Irregularity in Morphology (and Beyond), [page 61], Consequently, the perspective will be more diachronic than synchronic.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: synchronic

3

adjective

Meaning 3

used of the study of a phenomenon (especially language) as it changes through time

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • diachronic linguistics

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: historical

Antonyms: synchronic

History

Etymology

By surface analysis, dia- + chron- + -ic; historically, see synchronous § Etymology.

Across languages

Translations

29 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: diakronik — changing with time
  • Armenian: տարաժամանակյա (taražamanakya) — changing with time
  • Catalan: diacrònic — changing with time
  • Chinese Mandarin: 歷時 /历时 (lìshí) — changing with time
  • Czech: diachronní — changing with time
  • Danish: diakron — changing with time
  • Danish: diakronisk — changing with time
  • Dutch: diachroon — changing with time
  • Finnish: diakroninen — changing with time
  • French: diachronique — changing with time
  • German: diachronisch — changing with time
  • Greek: διαχρονικός (diachronikós) — changing with time
  • Hungarian: diakrón — changing with time
  • Italian: diacronico — changing with time
  • Japanese: 通時的 (tsūjiteki) — changing with time
  • Kashmiri: یٔژ زَمٲنؠ (yạċ zamạ̄n') — changing with time
  • Mongolian: цуваа цагийн (cuvaa cagiin) — changing with time
  • Mongolian: ᠴᠤᠪᠤᠭ ᠠ ᠴᠠᠭ ᠦᠨ (čubuɣ-a čaɣ-ün) — changing with time
  • Norman: dgiachronique — changing with time
  • Polish: diachroniczny — changing with time
  • Portuguese: diacrônico — changing with time
  • Portuguese: diacrónico — changing with time
  • Romanian: diacronic — changing with time
  • Russian: диахронический (diaxroničeskij) — changing with time
  • Spanish: diacrónico — changing with time
  • Swedish: diakron — changing with time
  • Swedish: diakronisk — changing with time
  • Turkish: diyakronik — changing with time
  • Vietnamese: lịch đại — changing with time