Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or concerned with phenomena, such as linguistic features, as they change through time.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Occurring or changing along with time.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective used of the study of a phenomenon (especially language) as it changes through time

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From dia– + Greek khronos, time.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From dia- +‎ chronic.

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Examples

  • Strawson goes on to identify two personality types, which he calls the diachronic type, the kind of person disposed to conceive of themselves connected to both their past and future selves, and the episodic type, which is the kind of person who does not tend to conceive of their momentary self as part of a chain of selves stretching into the past and future.

    Mind Hacks 2010

  • The present pope calls it 'diachronic' - a very useful term when 'relevance' is so often used to suggest that the contemporary is our only point of reference.

    unknown title 2009

  • Whatever may be true of the kind of diachronic unity we just discussed, the kind of diachronic unity associated with personal identity is clearly a kind of memory, specifically, a kind of autobiographical memory.

    The Unity of Consciousness Brook, Andrew 2006

  • Through what they called the "diachronic" they studied the evolution of a language; and through what they called the "synchronic" they observed the systemic theory of language.

    Among the Simple The Daily Growler 2006

  • Essentially the Moors and Ramapaughs rejected the "diachronic" or historical explanation of their origins in favor of a "synchronic" self-identity based on a "myth" of Indian adoption.

    home 2009

  • Essentially the Moors and Ramapaughs rejected the "diachronic" or historical explanation of their origins in favor of a "synchronic" self-identity based on a "myth" of Indian adoption.

    home 2009

  • Essentially the Moors and Ramapaughs rejected the "diachronic" or historical explanation of their origins in favor of a "synchronic" self-identity based on a "myth" of Indian adoption.

    home 2009

  • Essentially the Moors and Ramapaughs rejected the "diachronic" or historical explanation of their origins in favor of a "synchronic" self-identity based on a "myth" of Indian adoption.

    home 2009

  • Essentially the Moors and Ramapaughs rejected the "diachronic" or historical explanation of their origins in favor of a "synchronic" self-identity based on a "myth" of Indian adoption.

    home 2009

  • Essentially the Moors and Ramapaughs rejected the "diachronic" or historical explanation of their origins in favor of a "synchronic" self-identity based on a "myth" of Indian adoption.

    home 2009

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