timeline

plural timelines · alternative time line · alternative time-line

1. A graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events (past or future).

   But, as things stand, there's no timeline in place for reopening.

   2023 February 8, Andrew Mourant, “A serious shuttle service with options to Taunton and beyond”, in RAIL, number 976, page 31

   1 more example

   Just look at my timeline: Tom Jones, Tiny Tim, KISS, Tenacious D, John Wick (Jack Flick), Caesar of Planet of the Apes fame, Sebastian Maniscalco, "Elegant" Elliot Offen (see Howard Stern) ... the list is endless.

   2026, Vince Russo, TOTAL NONSTOP AGONY, The Rise and Fall of TNA

   Synonyms: chronology · Antonyms: timepoint

2. social mediaThe feed of a social media service, especially when ordered chronologically.

   But the move was calculated to allow Twitter more control over the apps and media appearing in users' timelines

   2024, Jacob Silverman, Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection, Harper Collins, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Your Timeline is essentially your home base on Facebook, the place where all your Facebook friends can view your information and activity.

   2013, Michael Miller, My Facebook for Seniors, Que Publishing, →ISBN, page 95

   I got bitches askin' me about the code for the Wi-Fi / So they can talk about they timeline / And show me pictures of they friends

   2015, “Energy”, in If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, performed by Drake

3. A schedule of activities; a timetable.

   1 more example

   “Once you’ve seen how these systems are cobbled together – the biases, the rushed timelines, the constant compromises – you stop seeing AI as futuristic and start seeing it as fragile,” said Adio Dinika, who studies the labor behind AI at the Distributed AI Research Institute, about people who work behind the scenes.

   2025 November 22, Varsha Bansal, “Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: schedule, timetable

4. An individual universe or reality, especially a parallel/alternate one in which events differ from actual history, or differ from the established canon of a fictional world.

   worst timeline

   4 more examples

   on an alternate timeline

   SISKO: I don't quite know how to say this... but now that we know about the accident that sent the ship back in time, we should be able to avoid it. WORF: Well if we do that, your timeline will collapse and everything here will cease to exist.

   1997 May 5, Children of Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), season 5, number 22 (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC

   So in that sense, if we want to talk about the timeline of what it would mean for Trump to be winning and reshifting the Constitutional order, part of what I think about is: If the neoliberal order is cracked, as Gerstle says it is, then the question is: What will succeed it?

   2025 May 16, Ezra Klein, “Is Trump Losing? A Debate.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   In one timeline, she [Marjorie Taylor Greene] could have used the Epstein win as the foundation of an anti-Trump resistance in the Republican ranks.

   2025 November 23, “Trump news at a glance: Marjorie Taylor Greene is gone, but Trump wonders for how long”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: timestream, time track, hypothetical

present singular third person timelines · participle present timelining · participle past timelined · past timelined · alternative time line · alternative time-line

1. To analyse a sequence of events or activities.
2. To display such a sequence graphically.