recent
Syllables: re·centUK/ˈɹiː.sənt//ˈɹi.sənt/
recent adjective: having happened a short while ago.
Adjective (1)
recent (comparative more recent, superlative most recent)
- Having happened a short while ago.
- Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir...2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 22 Feb 2016, page 193
- Synonyms:
- nudiustertian
- Up-to-date; not old-fashioned or dated.
- Synonyms:
- nouveau
- Having done something a short while ago that distinguishes them as what they are called.
- The cause has several hundred recent donors.
- I met three recent graduates at the conference.
- Particularly in geology, palaeontology, and astronomy: having occurred a relatively short time ago, but still potentially thousands or even millions of years ago.
- Finding it now means it was produced in more recent times, in astronomical terms.2020 October 4, Evan Gough, “We Now Have Proof a Supernova Exploded Perilously Close to Earth 2.5 Million Years Ago”, in Science Alert
Noun
recent (plural recents)
- A recently viewed or accessed item.
- Obviously, the first time you launch this app, your Recents list is empty.2012, Jason R. Rich, Your iPad 2 at Work, page 308
Proper noun capitalized: Recent
Recent
- The Holocene.
- He [Charles Lyell] ignored Quaternary, a term he never accepted. The Recent addressed the age “tenanted by man,” which at the time barely extended beyond the chronicles of the Bible.2012, Lydia Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World, Penguin, →ISBN
Adjective (2) capitalized: Recent
Recent (not comparable)
- Of the Holocene, particularly pre-21st century.
recent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
recent in Hindi
- having happened a short while ago
- हालिया hāliyā
recent in Tamil
- சமீபத்திய, சமீப, அண்மைய, அண்மை
recent in Marathi
- recent
- ताजे tāj̈e
recent in Urdu
- having happened a short while ago
- حالیہ hāliya
More languagesFewer languages
- recent in Bengali
- সাম্প্রতিক, নতুন, আধুনিক, এখনকার
- recent in Telugu
- ఇటీవలి iṭīvali
- recent in Malayalam
- സമീപകാല samīpakāla
- recent in Kannada
- ಇತ್ತೀಚಿನ, ಈಚಿನ, ಇತ್ತೀಚೆಗೆ ನಡೆದ
- recent in Gujarati
- તાજેતરના
- recent in Odia
- ନୂଆ nuā
- recent in Nepali
- हालैको
- recent in Tagalog
- kararaan
- recent in Arabic
- أَخِير ʔaḵīr, جَدِيد jadīd
- recent in Indonesian
- baru saja
- recent in Persian
- تازه tâza, اخیر axir
- recent in Thai
- เร็วๆ นี้ reo-reo née
- recent in Vietnamese
- gần đây
Examples of recent in a sentence
- With his recent divorce still fresh in his mind, he was unable to concentrate on his work.
- I need to update my records to take account of the most recent transaction.
- One recent morning the team had to replace a broken weather research station.
Synonyms of recent
Forms of recent
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more recent |
| superlative | most recent |
| Noun | |
| plural | recents |
Origin of recent
Borrowed from Latin recēns (genitive recentis).
As classifier for a geological epoch coinciding with human presence (“Recent era”) introduced by Charles Lyell in 1833.
Words formed from recent
Words that rhyme with recent
Questions about recent
- What does recent mean?
- Recent means having happened a short while ago.
- What is recent in Hindi?
- Recent in Hindi is हालिया (hāliyā). See Recent meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is recent?
- Recent can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce recent?
- Recent is pronounced /ˈɹiː.sənt/ (UK).
Words near recent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: recent (page history and authors); Recent (page history and authors); recent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ताजे (Marathi) (page history and authors); recent (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); recent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); recent (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ନୂଆ (Odia) (page history and authors); recent (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-recent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “recent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/recent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.