chronic
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
That continues over an extended period of time.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
krahnikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɹɑnɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of a problem, that continues over an extended period of time.
medicine
Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.
Inveterate or habitual.
informal
Extremely serious.
noun
A person who is chronic, such as a criminal reoffender or a person with chronic disease.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of a problem, that continues over an extended period of time.
Used this way, chronic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use chronic
- “Chronic indigestion.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An arrangement of events in time.
Related to Of a problem, that continues over an extended period of time.
With respect to chronology.
In a habitual and longstanding manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Chronic leukemia characterized by granular leukocytes.
A nonreversible lung disease that is a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Pyelonephritis that develops slowly and can lead to renal failure if untreated.
Renal failure that can result from a variety of systemic disorders.
A wildlife disease (akin to bovine spongiform encephalitis) that affects deer and elk.
A form of bronchitis characterized by excess production of sputum leading to a chronic cough and obstruction of air flow.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.