noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The study of change over time, especially changes to language. uncountable, usually
2. 2
   the study of linguistic change wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

diachronic linguisticshistorical linguisticshistorical linguistics

Antonyms

All antonyms

synchrony

Example

More examples

"Japan fans may like the article "Diachrony of complex predicates in Japanese.""

Etymology

By surface analysis, dia- + chron- + -y; historically, see synchronous § Etymology.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.