Meaning

7 senses
  1. Being problematic over an extended period of time.

    chronic unemployment; chronic poverty; chronic anger; chronic life

    langanhaltend, andauernd, fortwährend

    хрони́ческийxroníčeskij

  2. Prolonged or slow to heal.

    chronic cough; chronic headache; chronic illness

    chronisch

    хрони́ческийxroníčeskij

    хронічнийxroničnyj

  3. Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.

    Chronic patients must learn to live with their condition.

    chronisch

    хрони́ческийxroníčeskij

  4. Inveterate or habitual.

    He's a chronic smoker.

    eingefleischt, unverbesserlich

    habitual

  5. (slang)Very bad, awful.

    That concert was chronic.

  6. (informal)Extremely serious.

    They left him in a chronic condition.

  7. (slang)Good, great; "wicked".

    That was cool, chronic in fact.

Examples

51 sentences
  1. Tom suffers from chronic back pain.

    ruТом страдает от хронических болей в спине. — Wezel

    deTom hat chronische Rückenschmerzen. — raggione

  2. Tom has chronic bronchitis.

  3. Tom suffers from chronic pain.

    ruТом страдает от хронических болей. — Wezel

    deTom leidet an chronischen Schmerzen. — brauchinet

  4. I have a chronic pain here.

    Tatoeba contributors · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · B1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. She suffers from a chronic malady.

    ruОна страдает от хронической болезни. — Svetislava

    deSie leidet an einer chronischen Krankheit. — MUIRIEL

Translations

8 languages
Українська
By meaning 1
medical: prolonged or slow to heal:
Русский
By meaning 1
that continues over an extended period of time:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
that continues over an extended period of time:
inveterate or habitual:

Origin

From chronical, from Old French cronike, from Latin chronicus, from Ancient Greek χρονικός

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.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

more chronic, most chronic
Comparativemore chronic Lesson
Superlativemost chronic Lesson

regular

Synonyms

8 synonyms
that continues over an extended period of time:diuturnal
very bad, awful:abysmal
good, great:gnarly
Close in meaning

Antonyms

2 antonyms
prolonged or slow to heal:acuteB2transientB2

Word family

23 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

chronic — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto