Chronically

How to spell chronically

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce chronically

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does chronically mean?

1. adverbIn a way that persists or recurs over a long period of time.

Chronically in a sentence

• The department has been chronically understaffed for years.

• He is chronically late for every morning meeting.

Where does chronically come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This adverb traces back to the Greek word khronos, which simply meant 'time'. From it the Greek adjective khronikos, 'concerning time', was formed, and Latin borrowed this as chronicus. By the medical writing of the 1500s and 1600s, 'chronic' had come to describe illnesses that persisted over a long stretch of time, in deliberate contrast to 'acute' conditions that flared up quickly and passed. The adverb 'chronically' grew naturally out of that adjective, stacking the suffixes -ic, -al, and -ly to mean 'in a way that lasts or recurs over a long period'. The same khronos root quietly powers a family of familiar words such as 'chronicle', 'chronology', and 'synchronise', and recognising that shared 'chron' opening is the surest way to remember that the spelling begins with ch and not with a plain c or k.

How the word is built

• chron- (from Greek khronos: time)
• -ic (adjective forming)
• -al (adjective)
• -ly (adverb forming)