alternate timeline

A form of alternative timeline — A setting or a series of events that differ from the original fictional universe of a work; or from what happened in the real world.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounalternate timeline (plural alternate timelines)

plural alternate timelines

  1. alternativeAlternative form of alternative timeline.

    This story of how American originality lost its way is arresting and well told. On an alternate timeline without Donald Trump in office dismantling the American scientific establishment and Elon Musk kneecapping the American state, it might have been the manifesto of a new politics.

    2025 March 18, Samuel Moyn, “Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2025
Cite this entry
APA

alternate timeline. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alternate%20timeline

MLA

“alternate timeline.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alternate%20timeline. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “alternate timeline,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alternate%20timeline.

Source: alternate timeline on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.