Word.ws English Dictionary

chronolect

/ˈkɹɒnəʊlɛkt/

chronolect noun: a specific variety of a language at a given time in its history of development.

Noun

chronolect (plural chronolects)

  1. A specific variety of a language at a given time in its history of development.
    • Koine and Byzantine are chronolects of Greek.
    • Taking lect in the sense of ‘variety’ (and not ‘social variety’), I have coined spatiolect ‘spatial variety’, chronolect ‘chronological variety’, communolect ‘variety of a community (however defined)’, ecolect ‘variety of an economic class’, ethnolect ‘variety of an ethnic group’, religiolect...1981, Leuvense Bijdragen, volume LXX, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, page 52

Forms of chronolect

pluralchronolects

Origin of chronolect

From chrono- (“time”) + -lect (“[language] variety”).

Words formed from chronolect

Questions about chronolect

What does chronolect mean?
Chronolect means a specific variety of a language at a given time in its history of development.
What part of speech is chronolect?
Chronolect is a noun.
How do you pronounce chronolect?
Chronolect is pronounced /ˈkɹɒnəʊlɛkt/.
What is the plural of chronolect?
The plural of chronolect is chronolects.

Words near chronolect in the dictionary

  1. chronoisothermal
  2. chronoisotherms
  3. chronokinesis
  4. chronol.
  5. chronolatry
  6. chronolect
  7. chronolectal
  8. chronolects
  9. chronolocate
  10. chronolocated
  11. chronolocates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chronolect (page history and authors). 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.

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