Learn English – Can “chronological” refer to future events

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Quoting Merriam-Webster:

chronological: arranged in or according to the order of time

Quoting the Cambridge dictionary:

chronological: following the order in which a series of events happened

Does that mean that “chronological” can not refer to future events? E.g. would the following usage be incorrect?

I listed the concerts I'm planning to go to in chronological order.

If so, what other word/phrase could be used instead?

Best Answer

'Chronological' does not refer to any particular place in a time line. It only specifies that a set of events are one after another, without reference to a point in time. The Cambridge definition is unfortunate, there is no restriction of the word to past events.

'The steps in the cake recipe must be executed in chronological order in order to be successful."

You may have already looked at many instances of 'chronological' in the wild and noticed that possibly are very often used about past events. The same could be said for other time-oriented terms like 'fast' or 'frequent'.

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