Skip to main content
diachronic

diachronic

1 9.6
Describing how something changes over time, especially language
  • adjective
  • /ˌdaɪəˈkrɒnɪk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : diacrónico
  • Linguists use diachronic analysis to study how languages evolve and change over centuries.
  • diachronic shift
  • diachronic metathesis
  • diachronic metalepsis

Examples

  • The historical evolution can, however, be reconstructed from written sources that provide diachronic and codified information.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Our task is to now identify the motivation for this basic diachronic shift in the lower clauses of Spanish causatives.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Certain methods have developed in the academic field to correct diachronic distortions.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Three of the four foregoing historical problems have, in fact, already been explained through further diachronic analysis.

    Academic text (2001)
  • In sections 2-5 of our study, we will examine the diachronic shifts in all four of these phenomena in Spanish.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Variety and flexibility, in other words, are conspicuous in any diachronic perspective.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The present analysis, by comparison, features analysis of diachronic variation, which marks trajectories of change over time.

    Academic text (2015)
  • In summary, we have sought to provide a comprehensive account of the diachronic evolution of causatives in Spanish.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Taken in sum, these meanings underline a diachronic relationship between the language of an earlier and a later text.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Girls and women explain kinship in matrilinear terms, with the main diachronic division concentrating on age-group membership (Simchenko 1963, 170).

    Academic text (2000)

Synonyms

historical
vsdiachronic
  • Specialized
59 4.8

Relating to how something develops or changes over time

is a specialist linguistic term focusing on language change over time
glottochronological
vsdiachronic
  • Specialized
9.9

About the study of how languages change over time by comparing words

is broader and not limited to comparing vocabulary change rates

Antonyms

synchronic
  • Specialized
9.8

A way of studying language at one time without its history

Compounds

9.5

The study of how languages change over time

How Time-Based

diachronic
  • Specialized
1 9.6
evolutionary
  • Specialized
177 4.6
historical
400 3.6
synchronic
  • Specialized
9.8
ahistorical
  • Formal
1 8.4

Surface Forms

diachronic positive

Morphology

diachronic = dia + chron + ic

Formed from Greek combining elements (dia- + chron + -ic); the parts signal 'through/time' for learners familiar with 'chron-' but the term is specialized and can be confused with 'chronic'.

Etymology

The word diachronic comes from Greek parts dia- meaning 'through' and chron- meaning 'time', just like in chronicle or chronology. So diachronic means looking at something 'through time' to see how it changes.