chronogram

[ kron-uh-gram ]

noun

1. an inscription in which certain Roman numeral letters express a date or epoch on being added together by their values.
2. a record made by a chronograph.

chronogram

/ ˌkrɒnəʊɡrəˈmætɪk; ˈkrəʊnə-; ˈkrɒnəˌɡræm /

noun

1. a phrase or inscription in which letters such as M, C, X, L and V can be read as Roman numerals giving a date
2. a record kept by a chronograph

Derived Forms

• ˌchronogramˈmatically, adverb
• chronogrammatic, adjective

Other Words From

• chron·o·gram·mat·ic [kron-oh-gr, uh, -, mat, -ik], chrono·gram·mati·cal adjective
• chrono·gram·mati·cal·ly adverb
• chrono·gramma·tist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of chronogram¹

First recorded in 1615–25; chrono- + -gram ¹

Example Sentences

"He decided to ignore the previously adopted chronogram of reform and elections," the internal EU's sanctions list said.

From Reuters

“We don’t really have a very fixed chronogram right now, so our next step is to do these experiments with the blind users. We are also arranging with a retail company here in Brazil to do some experiments in a real supermarket. We believe that next year, we will probably have some more interesting results with real scenarios and real users.”

From Forbes

Translation for humans: 'chronogram' is an "aren't we sophisticated in our clever use of silly, opaque, uneccessary jargon" version of 'timeline'.

From Scientific American

—I doubt not the accuracy of Sir Nicholas Tindal's copy of the inscription, but I suspect that the painter of the red capitals made a mistake, and that the d in the word cedit should have been the red letter instead of the e; if so, the chronogram would be as follows M.DCCVVVVIIIIIIIII, i.e.

From Project Gutenberg

H. F. The red letters undoubtedly compose a chronogram; E in such compositions represents 250.

From Project Gutenberg