recency
Americannoun
-
the fact of being recent, of having occurred a relatively short time ago; closeness of a past event to a later past time or to the present.
The general nervousness during that period was mostly due to the recency of the great stock market crash.
-
the fact of being more recent than something else and therefore more salient or memorable (often used attributively).
The data might be showing recency effects—that is, choices presented later were more likely to be selected by participants.
Etymology
Origin of recency
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.
“I mean, if you can’t get excited about that … but obviously there’s a little more meaning to it, given the recency of our lives.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2026
Becoming a student of financial-market history is helpful, though probably not enough to overcome recency bias.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 14, 2026
AI search also values recency even more than traditional search does, research by Profound suggested.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
Over 120 of these studies were given priority based on sample size, recency, relevance and the range of health conditions they addressed.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 12, 2025
Having had actual communion with the contriving mind, we recognize its presence more readily in its production; or else the recency of the departure heightens the expressiveness with which everything speaks of the departed.
From The Crown of Thorns : a token for the sorrowing by E. H. (Edwin Hubbell) Chapin
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.
