Word.ws English Dictionary

now-or-never

UK/ˌnaʊəˈnɛvə/US/ˌnaʊəɹˈnɛvəɹ/

now-or-never adjective: of a need for a decision, an opportunity, etc.: arising at the present time and requiring action to be taken immediately, or not at all.

Adjective

now-or-never (not comparable)

  1. Of a need for a decision, an opportunity, etc.: arising at the present time and requiring action to be taken immediately, or not at all.
    • Margaret knew what it was to expect her visitors to return ‘in one moment,’ and with a ‘now-or-never’ feeling she began, ‘Ethel dear, wait,’ but Ethel was too impetuous to attend.1856, [Charlotte Mary Yonge], chapter XIV, in The Daisy Chain; or, Aspirations. A Family Chronicle. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], →OCLC, part I, page 133

Origin of now-or-never

From now or never (adverb).

Words that rhyme with now-or-never

17 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about now-or-never

What does now-or-never mean?
Now-or-never means of a need for a decision, an opportunity, etc.: arising at the present time and requiring action to be taken immediately, or not at all.
What part of speech is now-or-never?
Now-or-never is an adjective.
How do you pronounce now-or-never?
Now-or-never is pronounced /ˌnaʊəˈnɛvə/ (UK).

Words near now-or-never in the dictionary

  1. now, now
  2. now-a-days
  3. now-adays
  4. now-now
  5. now-nowism
  6. now-or-never
  7. Nowa Nowa
  8. Nowa Sarzyna
  9. Nowa Sól
  10. Nowack
  11. Nowacki

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: now-or-never (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-now or never.ogg.

Cite this entry: “now-or-never.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/now-or-never. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.