metachronous

[ muh-tak-ruh-nuhs ]

adjective

1. Medicine/Medical. occurring at a different time than a similar event:

   metachronous tumors.

2. Geology. composed of parts formed at different times:

   The older late-glacial shorelines are metachronous.

Word History and Origins

Origin of metachronous¹

First recorded in 1900–05 (for a different sense); meta- + Greek chrón(os) “time” + -ous