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Single word for the timeline of past, present, and future events

English Language & Usage Asked on December 1, 2021

I know that a timeline of past and possibly present events are simply referred to as a "Timeline of [insert event here]", however, I am struggling to find a word or phrase that encompasses the future as well.

Some possible candidates that come to mind are:

  • Scope
  • Purview of events
  • Span

But I feel that none of these are really that clear or accurate.

6 Answers

Without context it is difficult to say but I think that :

... the sequence of events ...

covers past, present and future occurrences.

(Countable noun) A sequence of events or things is a number of events or things that come one after another in a particular order.

Collins Dictionary

“With a certain sequence of events in next few weeks,” Rosen says, “we could be back to square one.”

Covid-19 Trials - Science Mag

Answered by Nigel J on December 1, 2021

I would say chronology

"a relating of events usually in the order in which they happened"(Merriam Webster's Dictionary ).

Answered by user307254 on December 1, 2021

Timeline is actually the right word here!

From the Cambridge Dictionary definition we can see that there are several usages of the word:

Timeline

  • a line that shows the time and the order in which events have happened

  • a plan that shows how long something will take or when things will happen

As you can see, this word can encompass both the past and future. It is perfectly valid to put past and future events onto a single timeline - this is often done using demarcation to clearly show what is the 'future' at the time of writing.

Powerpoint showing a timeline layout

Answered by P. Lindrome on December 1, 2021

One might refer to Eventualities of the subject. That is, the results or consequences of the events. These would be in the past as well as the future.

Answered by Elliot on December 1, 2021

Such a line is a World Line, a word rooted in the physics of spacetime.

Example usage (from a recent article in J. Creative Writing Studies): To be coherent, a story must remain fully within a World Line. A World Line’s boundaries are created by the character’s capabilities, intentions, and history. If the character acts contrary to those, it feels disingenuous because in real life we are incapable of escaping our own World Line.

Answered by C8H10N4O2 on December 1, 2021

Well, in Sanskrit... India, there's large time cycles called Yugas:

Wikipedia

There's a lot of good Sanskrit words... Kala means time. Vedanta refers to speculations about the future, based on what we know now and have learned in the past...

The words epoch, age and era come to mind...

But, I guess I'm not entirely clear on what word it is you're seeking.

There's Eschatology... but, I think that's primarily in regard to the future and even an afterlife... chronology... Lots of good philosophical and theological terms, like prophecy, or end times... lol, God's Plan, perhaps.

I dunno, I like the term temporal coordinate, temporal trajectory... how about temporality?

Answered by Casanova Wong on December 1, 2021

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