divergent timeline
Branching temporal path
A divergent timeline is a branch in history where events unfold differently from the main or original sequence—typically after some pivotal moment splits reality into separate paths.
The concept appears in science fiction, time travel stories, and theoretical physics: In one divergent timeline, the assassination failed and the war never happened.
Also called an alternate timeline or parallel timeline.
- alternate historyGenre reimagining past outcomes
- parallel universeHypothetical coexisting separate reality
- alternate realityHypothetical different version of existence
- branching pathRoute that divides
- butterfly effectSmall inputs, disproportionate results
multiverse · what if · fork · split decision · quantum · paradox · temporal anomaly · counterfactual · sliding doors · ripple · causality · fixed point · variant · splinter · deviation · anachronism · time travel · course correction
- time traveltime machine, time loop, time jump, time slip, causal loop
- alternate historiesalternate history, counterfactual
- multiverse conceptsparallel universe, parallel worlds, alternate dimension, alternate realities, pocket universes
divergent, diverge, divergence, diverging, diverged, divergently, divert, diversion, diverse