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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chronic.

Being problematic over an extended period of time.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈkɹɒn.ɪk/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɹɑ.nɪk/General-American, dialectal/ˈkɹɒn.ɪk/Canada, dialectal/ˈkɹɔn.ɪk/Australia
  1. Being problematic over an extended period of time.

    chronic unemployment; chronic poverty; chronic anger; chronic life
  2. Prolonged or slow to heal.

    chronic cough; chronic headache; chronic illness
  3. Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.

    Chronic patients must learn to live with their condition.
  4. Inveterate or habitual.

    He's a chronic smoker.
  5. Very bad, awful.

    slang
    That concert was chronic.
  6. Extremely serious.

    informal
    They left him in a chronic condition.
  7. Good, great; "wicked".

    slang
    That was cool, chronic in fact.
Where this word comes from

From chronical, from Old French cronike, from Latin chronicus, from Ancient Greek χρονικός (khronikós, “of time”), from χρόνος (khrónos, “time”). By surface analysis, chron- + -ic.

noun/ˈkɹɒn.ɪk/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɹɑ.nɪk/General-American, dialectal/ˈkɹɒn.ɪk/Canada, dialectal/ˈkɹɔn.ɪk/Australia
  1. Marijuana, typically of high quality.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  2. A condition of extended duration, either continuous or marked by frequent recurrence. Sometimes implies a condition which worsens with each recurrence, though that is not inherent in the term.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A person who is chronic, such as a criminal reoffender or a person with chronic disease.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From chronical, from Old French cronike, from Latin chronicus, from Ancient Greek χρονικός (khronikós, “of time”), from χρόνος (khrónos, “time”). By surface analysis, chron- + -ic.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.