Wordbay · Time
Words about time
Brief, lasting, late, early, old-fashioned, happening at once: words for how long things take and when they happen.
Everyday (20)
- anon adverb. Soon, or in a little while.
- antiquated adjective. Old-fashioned or outdated, and no longer suited to modern life.
- belated adjective. Coming or happening later than it should have done.
- chronic adjective. Of an illness or problem, lasting a long time or constantly coming back.
- chronological adjective. Arranged in the order in which things happened.
- concurrent adjective. Happening or existing at the same time.
- contemporary adjective. Living or happening at the same time as something else.
- defunct adjective. No longer existing, working or in use.
- déjà vu noun. The eerie feeling that you have already lived through the present moment.
- dilly-dally verb. To waste time, especially by dithering or dawdling.
- hiatus noun. A pause or break in something that otherwise carries on.
- interim adjective. Lasting only for a time, until something more permanent is in place.
- intermittent adjective. Stopping and starting at irregular intervals.
- nostalgia noun. A fond, slightly sad longing for a happy time in the past.
- obsolete adjective. No longer used or needed, because something newer has replaced it.
- perennial adjective. Lasting for a very long time, or happening again and again.
- posthumous adjective. Happening, appearing or awarded after a person’s death.
- protracted adjective. Lasting much longer than expected or than usual.
- retrospect noun. A view of past events from a later time, looking back on them.
- sporadic adjective. Happening now and then, at irregular times or in scattered places.
Well-read (22)
- anachronism noun. Something placed in the wrong period of time, or that seems to belong to the past.
- antediluvian adjective. Ridiculously old-fashioned; literally, from before the biblical Flood.
- circadian adjective. To do with a living thing’s natural cycle of roughly twenty-four hours.
- continual adjective. Happening again and again, with breaks in between.
- continuous adjective. Going on without any pause or break.
- entropy noun. A measure of the disorder in a system, which in nature tends to increase over time.
- ephemeral adjective. Lasting only a very short time.
- epoch noun. A long period of time marked by particular events or features.
- erstwhile adjective. Former; having once been something but no longer.
- evanescent adjective. Soon passing out of sight or memory; vanishing like vapour.
- halcyon adjective. Of a past time, remembered as calm, happy and golden.
- hitherto adverb. Until now, or until the time being talked about.
- immemorial adjective. Going back further than anyone can remember or than records show.
- imminent adjective. About to happen very soon.
- incipient adjective. Just beginning to happen or appear.
- moribund adjective. Close to death, or losing its vitality and no longer growing.
- nascent adjective. Just coming into existence and beginning to show promise.
- perpetuity noun. The state of lasting for ever, or for an unlimited time.
- precursor noun. Something that comes before a later, more developed thing and leads to it.
- primordial adjective. Existing at or from the very beginning of time or of the world.
- superannuated adjective. Too old to be useful or fashionable; or retired on a pension.
- vestigial adjective. Remaining as a small, useless trace of something that once had a purpose.
Advanced (18)
- antelucan adjective. Belonging to the hours just before dawn.
- desuetude noun. A state of no longer being used or practised.
- diuturnal adjective. Lasting for a long time.
- fugacious adjective. Tending to disappear or fade quickly; fleeting.
- gerontocracy noun. Rule by old people, or a group or society in which the eldest hold the power.
- gloaming noun. Twilight; the soft, fading light after sunset.
- hebdomadal adjective. Happening once a week; weekly.
- hypnagogic adjective. Belonging to the drowsy state between being awake and falling asleep.
- incunabula noun. Books printed in Europe before 1501, in the earliest decades of printing with movable type.
- lollygag verb. To spend time aimlessly or lazily.
- matutinal adjective. Of or happening in the early morning.
- palimpsest noun. A manuscript scraped clean and written over; also anything that shows layers of its past beneath the present.
- postprandial adjective. Happening after a meal, especially lunch or dinner.
- presently adverb. Soon; after a short time.
- quotidian adjective. Happening every day, and so ordinary or commonplace.
- sempiternal adjective. Lasting for ever; without beginning or end.
- senescence noun. The process of growing old and gradually deteriorating.
- vespertine adjective. Of, in, or active in the evening.