chronological

chronological — adjective

1. arranged according to when things happened, starting with the earliest and movin

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

arranged according to when things happened, starting with the earliest and moving toward the latest — for example, listing historical events on a timeline by the year they took place, or sorting a stack of letters by their postmarks.

Example

Aiko arranged the family photos in chronological order on the bookshelf.

collocation: in chronological order

The museum timeline showed the major wars in chronological sequence.

collocation: chronological sequence

Common collocations
  • chronological order
  • chronological sequence
  • chronological age
  • chronological list
  • chronological timeline
  • strict chronological order
Synonyms
  • sequential

    focuses on step-by-step order without explicitly referencing time

  • consecutive

    implies one item follows another without any gap; often used for numbers or days

  • successive

    describes a series of events coming one after another in a chain

  • temporal

    relates to time in general but does not specify an ordered arrangement

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

chronological + noun

in chronological order

Usage Note

Most commonly appears in the fixed phrase 'in chronological order' or as an attributive modifier before nouns such as 'order', 'sequence', or 'age'. The adverb form 'chronologically' is frequently used as an alternative: 'arranged chronologically'.

Common Mistakes

The patient suffered from a chronological illness.
The patient suffered from a chronic illness.
'chronological' relates to time order; 'chronic' means long-lasting or recurring.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

While all four words describe some form of ordered arrangement, 'chronological' is the only one that ties the order directly to the passage of time. 'Sequential' refers to items following a logical or numerical order — a manual may list steps 1, 2, 3 sequentially, but those steps are not necessarily time-related. 'Consecutive' stresses the absence of gaps: three consecutive days means Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with no skipped days. 'Successive' is similar but softer — successive governments may overlap or have intervals between them. 'Temporal' is the broadest, meaning simply 'relating to time' without implying any arrangement at all. If you write 'arrange the receipts in chronological order', you mean by date; if you write 'in sequential order', you might mean by receipt number.

sequentialconsecutive ↗successive ↗temporal ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • in chronological order
  • in chronological sequence
  • in strict chronological order

Prepositions

Etymology

GreekLatinFrenchEnglish

Comes from Greek 'chronos' (meaning 'time') and 'logos' (meaning 'word, reason, or study'). The two roots were combined into Latin 'chronologia' (the science of measuring time) and passed into English through French 'chronologique'. The modern sense — 'arranged by time' — emerged in the early 1600s. The same 'chrono-' root appears in 'chronicle', 'chronometer', and 'synchronize'.