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worst timeline

worst timeline

8.9
An imagined version of events where many bad things happen
  • noun
  • Texting
translation icon : peor línea de tiempo
  • This is the worst timeline I can imagine.

Examples

  • Online discussions often refer to 2020 as the worst timeline because of all the global crises.

  • He joked that losing the championship was proof they’d entered the worst timeline.

  • After hearing the news, she sighed and said it felt like we were in the worst timeline.

  • In a worst timeline, everything goes wrong.

  • After hearing the news, she sighed and said it felt like we were in the worst timeline.

  • He joked that losing the championship was proof they’d entered the worst timeline.

  • Online discussions often refer to 2020 as the worst timeline because of all the global crises.

Synonyms

darkest timeline
vsworst timeline
  • Slang
8.6

A situation when many bad things happen, often said jokingly

imagines especially bad real outcomes without joking tone
grim scenario
vsworst timeline
7.0

A very serious situation likely to have bad results

imagines a hypothetical sequence of especially bad outcomes rather than a real situation

How Bad

worst timeline
  • Texting
8.9
optimum
31 5.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

worst + timeline

The phrase combines the transparent superlative 'worst' with 'timeline' (a sequence or version of events), so its meaning — an imagined sequence of events with especially bad outcomes — is directly inferable from the constituents. This compositional pattern (i.e., forming the worst/best version of a situation) is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to understand the expression.

Etymology

Worst timeline comes from online talk about alternate worlds, where each timeline is a different version of events and the worst one is the version with the most bad things. So people use it to say a situation feels like the 'very bad' version of reality.