timeline

See also: time-line and time line

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

timeline

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• time line, time-line

Etymology

From time +‎ line.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaɪmˌlaɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

timeline (plural timelines)

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

   Synonym: chronology

   Antonym: timepoint

   Coordinate terms: timespan, time frame

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

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

2. (social media) The feed of a social media service, especially when ordered chronologically.
   • 2013, Michael Miller, My Facebook for Seniors, Que Publishing, →ISBN, page 95:

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

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

     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

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

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

3. A schedule of activities; a timetable.

   Synonyms: schedule, timetable

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

     “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.

4. (originally science fiction) 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.

   Synonyms: timestream, time track, hypothetical

   on an alternate timeline

   worst timeline

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

     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.

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

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

Derived terms

• alternate timeline
• alternative timeline
• darkest timeline
• timeline therapy
• worst timeline

Related terms

• timeliness

Translations

graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events

Albanian: kalendari historik Chinese: Mandarin: 年表 (zh) (niánbiǎo), 時間軸 / 时间轴 (zh) (shíjiānzhóu), (historical) 歷史年表 / 历史年表 (lìshǐ niánbiǎo) Czech: časová osa Dutch: tijdlijn (nl) Estonian: ajatelg Finnish: aikajana (fi) French: frise chronologique (fr) f, ligne du temps f Galician: cronoloxía f German: Zeittafel f, Zeitleiste f, zeitliche Abfolge f, Zeitstrahl m Greek: χρονολόγιο (el) n (chronológio), χρονοδιάγραμμα (el) n (chronodiágramma) Hungarian: idővonal Icelandic: tímaás m Indonesian: garis waktu (id), linimasa Italian: linea temporale f, linea del tempo f, cronologia (it) f Japanese: 年表 (ja) (ねんぴょう, nenpyō), 年譜 (ja) (ねんぷ, nenpu) Khmer: រេខាកាល (reikʰaa kaal) Maori: rārangi wā Polish: oś czasu f Portuguese: linha do tempo (pt) f, cronologia (pt) f Russian: временна́я шкала́ f (vremennája škalá), календа́рный гра́фик m (kalendárnyj gráfik), шкала́ вре́мени f (škalá vrémeni), хронологи́ческая диагра́мма f (xronologíčeskaja diagrámma) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: временска црта f Roman: vremenska crta f Spanish: cronología (es) f, línea de tiempo (es) f., línea temporal f

schedule of activities

Czech: rozvrh (cs) m Finnish: aikataulu (fi), ohjelma (fi) French: horaire (fr) m, chronologie (fr), planning (fr) m Galician: calendario (gl) m German: Zeitschiene f Greek: χρονοδιάγραμμα (el) n (chronodiágramma), πρόγραμμα (el) n (prógramma) Khmer: បន្ទាត់ពេលវេលា (bɑntoat peel veelie) Maori: rārangi wā Portuguese: cronograma (pt) m Russian: расписание (ru) n (raspisanije), распорядок (ru) m (rasporjadok) Serbo-Croatian: vremenski raspored m Spanish: agenda (es) f, calendario (es) m, cronograma (es) m

Verb

timeline (third-person singular simple present timelines, present participle timelining, simple past and past participle timelined)

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

Anagrams

• ilmenite, line item, melinite, menilite

Spanish

Noun

timeline f (plural timelines)

1. timeline