- modern
- modern adj1 Modern, recent, late, though not close synonyms, are subject to confusion when they are used to date things or events which have taken place, come into existence, or developed in times close to the present.Modern (see also NEW) is the term of widest range of meaning; it may date anything that is not medieval or ancient{
the ancient languages have now been superseded by the modern languages in popular favor in high schools and colleges
}{the date of the discovery of America, 1492, is often used arbitrarily as the beginning of modern history
}{the weed-caught wrecks of ancient galleys, medieval ships and modern dreadnaughts— Beebe
}or anything that bears the marks of a period nearer in time than another{modern surgical techniques
}{the modern novel
}{the ornate mansions of a bygone era mingle with more modern concepts of architecture— N. Y. Times
}or less clearly to anything that is new, fresh, or up-to-date{she is very modern in her clothes and in her manners
}{we all have to remember that what is modern today and up-to-date, what is efficient and practical, becomes obsolete and outworn tomorrow— Roosevelt
}In all these uses a change or contrast in character or quality is to some extent implied by the term modern.Recent is usually without such implication and may simply indicate a date that approximates that of the immediate past, though the time to which this term, too, refers depends upon the thing that is qualified; thus, "recent geological ages" designates those ages immediately preceding the present geological age, although, since each age may represent millions of years, recent is obviously used relatively; "Shakespeare is a more recent author than Chaucer" implies only a comparative status, for Shakespeare was born in the sixteenth century and Chaucer in the fourteenth; "we have all the recent books" implies an absolute relation to a time that may be described as the immediate past{recent news
}{recent rains
}{a recent purchase
}{a recent issue of a magazine
}Late (see also TARDY, DEAD) implies a series or succession of which the person or thing so described is the most recent in time{the late war
}{the servant's late master testified as to his honesty
}{moose which of late years have been showing up around Stewartstown— Holbrook
}Sometimes the word carries an implication that is less definite and equivalent to "not long ago holding the position of or serving as"{the firm's new director of research was the late professor of applied chemistry at the University
}2 modernistic, *new, novel, new-fashioned, newfangled, original, freshAnalogous words: Contemporary, contemporaneous, coincident, concomitant, concurrent: *prevailing, current, prevalentAntonyms: antique: ancient
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
