Word.ws English Dictionary

hic et nunc

hic et nunc adverb: here and now, in the immediate present.

Adverb

hic et nunc (comparative more hic et nunc, superlative most hic et nunc)

  1. Here and now, in the immediate present.
    • Such sentences explicitly state that something both has taken place and will take place; they are silent about what Bruce and Wayne are doing hic-et-nunc.1995, Andrew L. Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin
    • Perhaps, then, it is wiser, more "realistic," and more fruitful first to examine religion not in relation to a group of individuals but in relation to each one of those individuals, hic et nunc, not on a collective level but on a concrete, personal, and above all psychological level.2000, Jean Bottéro, Clarisse Herrenschmidt, Jean-Pierre Vernant, Ancestor of the West, →ISBN, page 51

Adjective

hic et nunc (not comparable)

  1. Happening here and now, occurring in the immediate present.
    • Alice IS WRITING a letter, The tenor IS STRANGLING the soprano, Leigh IS TAKING a shower are examples of genuine hic-et-nunc events.1995, Andrew L. Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin
    • Psychology is the study of behavior which transcends (goes beyond) the given, the initially hic et nunc.2012, A. Fried, Joseph Agassi, Psychiatry as Medicine: Contemporary Psychotherapies, →ISBN, page 144

Noun

hic et nunc (uncountable)

  1. The here and now, the immediate present.
    • The hic et nunc, represented by a point on this line, is determined, fixed, and defined by the past which, through it, determines the future as well.1980, Alexandre Kojeve, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phemenology of Spirit
    • "I draw every day, mostly what is around me -- not just the places and the people, but the sounds of them...the light on them," he explains. “Something about the hic et nunc (here and now)—by that, I mean I have the feeling that drawing is helping me to understand the unique world around me, always...2012, John Foster, New Masters of Poster Design, Volume 2, →ISBN

Examples of hic et nunc in a sentence

  • “We need a Marshall Plan hic et nunc” proffered a man who, to camera and in profile, looked like a sole.2012, Alain Mabanckou, Black Bazaar, →ISBN:
  • But what, more precisely, distinguishes such an actual perception from a solely possible perception if not its accomplishment hic et nunc?2015, Burt Hopkins, Steven Crowell, The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy, →ISBN:
  • “Something about the hic et nunc (here and now)—by that, I mean I have the feeling that drawing is helping me to understand the unique world around me, always changing.2012, John Foster, New Masters of Poster Design, Volume 2, →ISBN:

Forms of hic et nunc

comparativemore hic et nunc
superlativemost hic et nunc
alternative formhic-et-nunc

Origin of hic et nunc

From Latin hic et nunc (“here and now”).

Questions about hic et nunc

What does hic et nunc mean?
Hic et nunc means here and now, in the immediate present.
How do you use hic et nunc in a sentence?
“We need a Marshall Plan hic et nunc” proffered a man who, to camera and in profile, looked like a sole.
What part of speech is hic et nunc?
Hic et nunc can be an adverb, an adjective or a noun.

Words near hic et nunc in the dictionary

  1. Hibshman
  2. Hibshmans
  3. Hibunawan
  4. Hibunawon
  5. hic
  6. hic et nunc
  7. hic jacet
  8. hic jacets
  9. hic Rhodus, hic salta
  10. hican
  11. hicans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hic et nunc (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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