In the title compound, C21H13ClO, the central anthracene system is distorted towards a boat conformation and the outer rings are not coplanar with the central ring [dihedral angles = 7.79 (1) and 11.90 (1)°]. The crystal structure features inversion dimers with graph-set motif R 2 (2)(18) formed by C-H⋯O inter-actions.