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Glite Dictionary
chronogram

chronogram

1 9.9
A written line that uses some letters as numbers to show a date
  • noun
  • /ˈkrɒnəˌɡræm/
  • Archaic
: cronograma
  • A chronogram is a clever way to include a date in a sentence using letters that represent numbers.

Examples

  • Many historical documents contain a chronogram that encodes important dates through Roman numerals.

  • In this chronogram, which conjugates a coded message and a literal one, we are in the presence of the elementary particles of organized language.

    Academic text (1999)

  • When studying ancient texts, one might encounter a chronogram that reveals the year of a significant event.

Surface Forms

chronogram singular
chronograms plural

Morphology

chronogram = chrono + gram

The components chrono- 'time' and -gram 'written thing' make the date-related meaning broadly recoverable, but the special convention of using letters as numerals is not fully predictable.

Etymology

The word chronogram comes from the Greek parts chron- meaning 'time' and -gram meaning 'letter' or 'something written', the same chron- you see in chronicle and the -gram in telegram. A chronogram is like a 'time-letter': a phrase where certain letters, read as numbers, show the year of an event.