noun
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the quality or state of being modern
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something modern
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of modernity
Explanation
Use the noun modernity when you're talking about the newness of something, like the modernity of the new, sleek skyscraper in your city. When something is contemporary — it feels like it belongs in the present day — you might take note of its modernity. Sometimes people use the word to discuss something old that's becoming more modern, or attempting to find its place today. You could talk about the balance between tradition and modernity in the Hindu faith, for example. The root of modernity is the Latin word modernus, "modern."
Vocabulary lists containing modernity
Top Ten Most Relevant Words from the Second Democratic Debate, November 14, 2015
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Second Democratic Debate 20 words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They fled to modernity — Parton to Nashville, my parents to Southern California — as soon as they could but never forsook their hometowns, helping those who remained and taking their culture with them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Silents aren’t entirely lost to modernity, of course.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
An inside student might say that prisons in eastern Oregon used to be mental institutions and Army barracks; an outside student might speak about modernity and the need for discipline and control under capitalism.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
Fashion bible Vogue seemed to agree, saying "Moore has never before so mastered this glamorous aesthetic that goes from timeless sophistication to daring modernity".
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
There’s enough chintz in here to kill modernity.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
In it, he seemed to shove fiction abruptly in the direction of the 21st century, describing humans as they muddled through overwhelming modernities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
Do you find that they are incorporating a lot of modern techniques or modernities in general into the etiquette rules now?
From Slate ● May 2, 2017
The combination was surprisingly good, with the stark modernities of “Limen” set against the lush romanticism of “Marguerite” and the vaguely mystical rites of “Requiem.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 17, 2011
Despite a deplorably high turnover in talent, American Ballet Theatre has the physical resources to succeed in everything it does, from a purist four-act Swan Lake to Grahamesque modernities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Chateau de Maintenon The existence of this princely residence is an agreeable reminder of the life of luxury of the olden time albeit certain modernities which we to-day think necessities are lacking.
From Royal Palaces and Parks of France by Blanche McManus
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
