Chronic
adj, noun, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 Marijuana, typically of high quality. countable, slang, uncountable
"It's ironic, I had the brew, she had the chronic"
- 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
"Wernersvill asylum is now practically filled, and, as it is peopled with able-bodied chronics, there will be but little annual movement of patients."
- 1 Of a problem, that continues 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."
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- 6 Extremely serious. informal
"They left him in a chronic condition."
- 7 Good, great; "wicked". slang
"That was cool, chronic in fact."
- 1 being long-lasting and recurrent or characterized by long suffering wordnet
- 2 habitual wordnet
- 3 persisting for a long time wordnet
Example
More examples"There is a chronic oversupply of rice in Japan."
Etymology
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.
Related phrases
More for "chronic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.