Gloss · Words · Anachronism

anachronism

əˈnækrəˌnɪzəmnoun

What does anachronism mean?

Something that belongs to a different time than the one it is in.

Anachronism, six ways

PlainSomething that belongs to a different time than the one it is in.
ADHDWrong era. Out of its time. A watch in a Roman movie.
Gen ZSomething that is in the wrong century. A fax machine. A cowboy with AirPods.
MetaphorA visitor who missed the train and arrived a hundred years late.
FormalA thing belonging to a period other than the one in which it exists; a chronological error.
Like I’m 5Something that is from the wrong time, like a phone in a knight story. That’s an anachronism.

How to pronounce anachronism

uh-NAK-ruh-niz-um/əˈnækrəˌnɪzəm/

Anachronism in a sentence

The typewriter in the office was a charming anachronism.
A wristwatch in a Roman epic is a glaring anachronism.
To some, the fax machine is a stubborn anachronism.

Synonyms for anachronism

relicOld and left over, but not out of place.
throwbackFond, and on purpose.
archaismFor old words and forms, not objects.

Where anachronism comes from

Greek. Ana, backward, and chronos, time.

Good to know

Use it for anything out of its time, in either direction: the past surviving into the present, or the present slipped into a story set in the past.

Anachronism meaning, on a Gloss card: Something that belongs to a different time than the one it is in.

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Words like anachronism

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In: Words for time · Words with a story · SAT words · Latin and Greek roots