Time, change and consequences

C2 · 100 entries · Five themes

Time, change and consequences

Created by , British English teacher.

Open a theme, then select a word or phrase for its meaning, example and pronunciation.

1. Timing and duration (20 entries)
  1. transience
  2. a brief interregnum
  3. a transitional interval
  4. in the intervening years
  5. an intervening period
  6. a premature conclusion
  7. an extended moratorium
  8. a vanishingly short window
  9. in the latter stages
  10. in the immediate aftermath
  11. an untimely intervention
  12. a momentary lull
  13. a belated acknowledgement
  14. be ahead of one's time
  15. a compressed timescale
  16. time is of the essence
  17. a period of dormancy
  18. at the eleventh hour
  19. be long overdue
  20. prolong
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2. Gradual developments (20 entries)
  1. strategic drift
  2. the shape of things to come
  3. mission creep
  4. a protracted hiatus
  5. process drift
  6. entrench
  7. a silo mentality
  8. open a can of worms
  9. refine
  10. the path of least resistance
  11. hail as a breakthrough
  12. moribund
  13. a handover bottleneck
  14. incipient
  15. burgeoning
  16. implementation intention
  17. an implementation deficit
  18. organisational slack
  19. run its course
  20. hiatus
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3. Reversals and setbacks (20 entries)
  1. fall at the first hurdle
  2. the tide turns
  3. be touch and go
  4. hit a stumbling block
  5. hedge one's bets against a reversal
  6. hang in the balance
  7. take a turn for the worse
  8. be on a knife-edge
  9. come up against a brick wall
  10. have the odds stacked against one
  11. hang by a thread
  12. counteract
  13. at the best of times
  14. with retrospective effect
  15. reversal
  16. catch someone on the back foot
  17. with prospective effect
  18. ride out a difficult patch
  19. reassert
  20. side-step
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4. Foresight and hindsight (20 entries)
  1. tempt fate
  2. beat the odds
  3. be a hostage to events
  4. a contingency one had not reckoned with
  5. a long shot
  6. an outside chance
  7. leave oneself at the mercy of events
  8. be caught unawares
  9. leave nothing to chance
  10. defy the odds
  11. be wise to a risk
  12. be odds-on to happen
  13. go against the run of play
  14. be caught on the back foot
  15. the benefit of hindsight
  16. ride one's luck
  17. be caught on the hop
  18. with hindsight alone
  19. read the runes
  20. anticipation
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5. Permanence and legacy (20 entries)
  1. reinstate
  2. pervade
  3. retrospective
  4. accrue
  5. rejuvenate
  6. revitalise
  7. redouble
  8. in abeyance
  9. intergenerational consequence
  10. on sufferance
  11. a perverse outcome
  12. pejoration
  13. institutional memory
  14. make a rod for one's own back
  15. intergenerational equity
  16. pervasive
  17. perverse
  18. nostalgia
  19. rob Peter to pay Paul
  20. a lasting bequest
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