chronic

What it means

1. Being problematic over an extended period of time.

   chronic unemployment; chronic poverty; chronic anger; chronic life

   3 more examples

   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

   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 The Guardian, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2025

   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 Districts”, in NYC.gov, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026

   Synonyms: diuturnal

2. medicineProlonged or slow to heal.

   chronic cough; chronic headache; chronic illness

   2 more examples

   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

   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 on 06 Feb 2018

3. Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.

   Chronic patients must learn to live with their condition.

In a sentence

chronic unemployment; chronic poverty; chronic anger; chronic life

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekχρόνος (khrónos)
2. Ancient Greekχρονικός (khronikós)
3. Latinchronicus
4. Old Frenchcronike
5. Englishchronical
6. Englishchronic

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.