chronic

UK/ˈkɹɒn.ɪk/US/ˈkɹɑ.nɪk/

chronic adjective: being problematic over an extended period of time.

Adjective

chronic (comparative more chronic, superlative most chronic)

Being problematic over an extended period of time.
- chronic unemployment; chronic poverty; chronic anger; chronic life
- Peer group support is important to displaced homemakers. The Displaced Homemakers' Network has done excellent work in helping women see that their problems do not have to be chronic.1980, Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Integrating Displaced Homemakers into the Economy, page 14
Synonyms:

diuturnal
Prolonged or slow to heal.
- chronic cough; chronic headache; chronic illness
- So dreadful was the concentration of his glare that it seemed as if it must become chronic and stay like that for ever.1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 117
Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.
- Chronic patients must learn to live with their condition.
Inveterate or habitual.
- He's a chronic smoker.
(slang) Very bad, awful.
- That concert was chronic.
Synonyms:

abysmal
(informal) Extremely serious.
- They left him in a chronic condition.
(slang) Good, great; "wicked".
- That was cool, chronic in fact.
Synonyms:

gnarly

Noun

chronic (countable and uncountable, plural chronics)

(slang) Marijuana, typically of high quality.
- It's ironic, I had the brew, she had the chronic1992, Ice Cube, “It Was a Good Day”, in The Predator
- Pimp had been kicking it with one of the young jawns hanging around the apartment. She was real young and had bumpy skin and slum rings on every finger. She told us she was living next door with her grandmother while her mother was in jail, and she took us up to the roof to smoke some chronic.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 103
Synonyms:

bhang, benj, boo, broccoli, bud, buddha, cannabis, cheeba, choof, daccha
A condition of extended duration, either continuous or marked by frequent recurrence. Sometimes implies a condition which worsens with each recurrence, though that is not inherent in the term.
A person who is chronic, such as a criminal reoffender or a person with chronic disease.
- Wernersvill asylum is now practically filled, and, as it is peopled with able-bodied chronics, there will be but little annual movement of patients.1895, Report of the Committee on Lunacy to the Board of Public Charities of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, page 9
- And then there were the chronics, not only those with marked pathology but life-long sufferers from "indigestion" or migraine, who had been passed around from doctor to doctor with nothing but temporary relief.2001, Elizabeth Wright, A Brief Study Course in Homoeopathy, →ISBN, page 79

chronic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

chronic in Hindi

क्रोनिक

chronic in Tamil

கடுமையான, நாட்பட்ட, நாள்பட்ட, நீடித்த, தீவிரமான, நீண்டகால

chronic in Marathi

क्रोनिक

chronic in Bengali

দীর্ঘকালস্থায়ী, পুরাতন

More languagesFewer languages

chronic in Telugu: ముదురు muduru
chronic in Malayalam: പഴക്കം ചെന്ന, ദീർഘകാലമായിട്ടുള്ള, മാറാത്ത, വിട്ടുമാറാത്ത
chronic in Kannada: ಹಳೆಯ, ಮರುಕಳಿಸುವ, ಬಹುಕಾಲದ, ಹಳೆಯದಾದ
chronic in Punjabi: ਕ੍ਰੋਨਿਕ
chronic in Gujarati: ક્રોનિક
chronic in Odia: କ୍ରୋନିକ, କ୍ରନିକ୍
chronic in Nepali: क्रोनिक
chronic in Arabic: عَوِيص ʕawīṣ, مُزْمِن muzmin
chronic in Malay: kronik
chronic in Indonesian: kronis
chronic in Persian: مزمن mozmen, پیاده piyâde
chronic in Vietnamese: mãn tính, mạn tính

Examples of chronic in a sentence

These concerns were shared by other SNP women who told the Guardian there was a chronic lack of support from the party, including for those with younger families.2025 March 23, Libby Brooks and Severin Carrell, “‘Hostile environment’ drives many of SNP’s female MSPs to step down before 2026 vote”, in...
Community Board 2 has chronic sanitation issues that clog busy streets and create real quality-of-life problems for residents, workers and visitors.2026 April 17, Christopher Marte, quotee, “Mayor Mamdani Takes Major Step Toward Citywide Trash Containerization, Announces Six New...
In 2016, the CDC established guidelines for prescribing narcotics for chronic pain.2017 March 20, Nadia Kounang, “Prescriptions may hold clues to who gets hooked on opioids, study says”, in CNN, archived from the original...
Of fifty-five boys scoring four or more, fifteen were chronic offenders (out of twenty-three chronics altogether) […]2003, Philip Bean, Crime: Critical Concepts in Sociology, page 376:

All 40 example sentences with chronic

Synonyms of chronic

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of chronic

Forms of chronic

Adjective
comparative	more chronic
superlative	most chronic
alternative form (obsolete)	chronick
Noun
plural	chronics

Origin of chronic

From chronical, from Old French cronike, from Latin chronicus, from Ancient Greek χρονικός (khronikós, “of time”), from χρόνος (khrónos, “time”). By surface analysis, chron- + -ic.

Phrases with chronic

Words that rhyme with chronic

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about chronic

What does chronic mean?: Chronic means being problematic over an extended period of time.
What is chronic in Hindi?: Chronic in Hindi is क्रोनिक. See Chronic meaning in Hindi.
How do you use chronic in a sentence?: These concerns were shared by other SNP women who told the Guardian there was a chronic lack of support from the party, including for those with younger families.
What part of speech is chronic?: Chronic can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce chronic?: Chronic is pronounced /ˈkɹɒn.ɪk/ (UK).

Words near chronic in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: chronic (page history and authors); chronic (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chronic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chronic (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chronic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chronic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chronic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chronic (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chronic (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chronic (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chronic (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-chronic.ogg.

Cite this entry: “chronic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chronic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.