presently

American  

[prez-uhnt-lee] / ˈprɛz ənt li /

adverb

1. in a little while; soon.

   They will be here presently.

   Synonyms:

   forthwith, shortly

   Antonyms:

   later

2. at the present time; now.

   He is presently out of the country.

3. Archaic. immediately.

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presently British  

/ ˈprɛzəntlɪ /

adverb

1. in a short while; soon

2. at the moment

3. an archaic word for immediately

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Usage

The two apparently contradictory meanings of presently, “in a little while, soon” and “at the present time, now,” are both old in the language. In the latter meaning presently dates back to the 15th century. It is currently in standard use in all varieties of speech and writing in both Great Britain and the United States. The sense “soon” arose gradually during the 16th century. Strangely, it is the older sense “now” that is sometimes objected to by usage guides. The two senses are rarely if ever confused in actual practice. Presently meaning “now” is most often used with the present tense ( The professor is presently on sabbatical leave ) and presently meaning “soon” often with the future tense ( The supervisor will be back presently ). The semantic development of presently parallels that of anon, which first had the meaning, now archaic, of “at once, immediately,” but later came to mean “soon.”

Synonym Usage

See immediately

Etymology

Origin of presently

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at present ¹, -ly

Compare meaning

How does presently compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• presently vs. currently

Explanation

The adverb presently means "very soon." If you tell your sister that you'll be at her house presently, you mean that you're on your way. You might say that the cookies you just put in the oven will be done presently, or describe how you were so sleepy last night that you opened a book and presently fell asleep, before you could read a single page. Presently also means "right now," as when you say that the temperature outside is presently thirty degrees. This is the older of the two meanings — a fourteenth-century sense of "at present" gradually changed to include "sooner or later."

Example Sentences

Other humans, like Mariana Aidar, president of the animal-welfare nonprofit Projeto CAPA—the woman presently holding out the sugarcane to the capybara snacking away on the riverbank—are fighting for their capybara neighbors to survive.

From Slate • May 27, 2026

“The JMI presently remains favorable, but has been trending in a worrisome direction, and should be monitored closely for a potential warning sign,” he added.

From MarketWatch • May 20, 2026

Mythos is so capable at potentially dangerous things such as exploiting software bugs that Anthropic said it presently has no plans to release Mythos to the public.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

“It’s likely that Berkshire under Greg Abel’s leadership will commit a large portion of today’s outsized cash reserves at materially higher returns than are presently being earned on U.S. Treasuries,” Bloomstran wrote.

From Barron's • Feb. 26, 2026

Shasta looked round eagerly to find the speaker and presently saw a small, prickly person with a dark face who had just come out from among the trees.

From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis

Related Words

• immediately
• soon