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View synonyms for anachronism

anachronism

[ uh-nak-ruh-niz-uhm ]

noun

  1. something or someone that is not in its correct historical or chronological time, especially a thing or person that belongs to an earlier time:

    The sword is an anachronism in modern warfare.

  2. an error in chronology in which a person, object, event, etc., is assigned a date or period other than the correct one:

    To assign Michelangelo to the 14th century is an anachronism.



anachronism

/ əˈnækrəˌnɪzəm /

noun

  1. the representation of an event, person, or thing in a historical context in which it could not have occurred or existed
  2. a person or thing that belongs or seems to belong to another time

    she regards the Church as an anachronism

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • aˌnachroˈnistically, adverb
  • aˌnachroˈnistic, adjective
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Other Words From

  • an·a·chron·i·cal·ly [an-, uh, -, kron, -ik-lee], adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of anachronism1

1640–50; < Latin anachronismus < Greek anachronismós a wrong time reference, equivalent to anachron ( ízein ) to make a wrong time reference ( ana-, chron-, -ize ) + -ismos -ism
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Word History and Origins

Origin of anachronism1

C17: from Latin anachronismus, from Greek anakhronismos a mistake in chronology, from anakhronizein to err in a time reference, from ana- + khronos time
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Example Sentences

SamsungMany TV remotes still rely on alkaline batteries, which feels like an anachronism in 2021.

In many ways, the United States Senate is an anachronism left over from a time when thirteen colonies were independent sovereign nations.

From Time

The divide between capital and labor increasingly looks like an anachronism, a throwback to the language and illusory simplicity of another time.

The usual policy of staying out of foreign conflicts unless absolutely necessary was becoming an anachronism.

By 2030, I would argue that we will view this problem in the rearview mirror as a quaint anachronism.

The “reenactment” of the battle, an even more recent anachronism, dates back only to 1977.

These days, says another former top studio executive, puts are an anachronism.

With these appears, by a poetic anachronism, Dietrich of Berne.

By the time of the Reform Bill, a sinecure had become an anachronism.

Yet there are "many traces of apparent anachronism," of divergence from the more antique picture of life.

It was to him more of an anachronism than any manifestation he had yet encountered, even at the Fort, that stronghold of the past.

But what is an anachronism of this kind compared to that which involves the principal character in one continued topsy-turveydom?

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