Meaning of Anachronism | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A chronological mistake; the erroneous dating of an event, circumstance, or object.
   countable, uncountable
2. A person or thing which seems to belong to a different time or period of time.
   countable, uncountable
3. The aberrant projection of the present onto the past.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“Indeed, that Hall of the Upper Temple is a sight not uninteresting, and with the exception of some trifling improvements and anachronisms which have been introduced into the practice there, a man may sit down and fancy that he joins in a meal of the seventeenth century.”

“[W]e beg the reader to understand that we only commit anachronisms when we choose and when by a daring violation of those natural laws some great ethical truth is to be advanced […]”

“You are too young—it is an anachronism for you to have such thoughts”

“His movements, his clothes, everything about him, seemed slightly out of place in this assembly. He spoiled the pattern; like Alvin, he was an anachronism.”

“There exist in Europe a number of independent or semi-independent countries which are complete anachronisms, they are mini-countries which have little business existing in this hurly-burly century, but somehow they survive.”

“It has been a colossal error by Davos Man left-wingers to think of nation-states as embarrassing anachronisms hostile to democracy.”

“The old portions are perfectly preserved[…]and yet right there, in their literal backyard, rise the newer portions, the Star Wars district and the Avatar experience, offering the best of current theme park technologies to match the lovingly maintained anachronisms.”

CEFR level