recent
Americanadjective
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of late occurrence, appearance, or origin; lately happening, done, made, etc..
recent events; a recent trip.
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not long past.
in recent years.
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of or belonging to a time not long past.
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Geology. Recent. noting or pertaining to the present epoch, originating at the end of the glacial period, about 10,000 years ago, and forming the latter half of the Quaternary Period; Holocene.
noun
adjective
adjective
Related Words
See modern.
Other Word Forms
- quasi-recent adjective
- recency noun
- recently adverb
- recentness noun
Etymology
Origin of recent
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin recent- (stem of recēns ) “fresh, new”
Explanation
If something is recent, it happened in the immediate past or not long ago. You are a recent fan of yoga if you just started liking it in the past week or two. If you talk about something that happened in recent months or years, it means the last one to three months or years. Otherwise, recent means new or just happened. It’s particularly useful when you don’t know exactly when something happened, but you know it wasn’t long ago. Perhaps you have been a recent guest star on a show, and your recent movies have been very successful. You know it wasn’t long ago at all and you are still a star!
Vocabulary lists containing recent
"Magic Island," Vocabulary from the poem
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Workshop 5, Part 1
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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.
But recent events have shaken this religious loyalty.
From Slate • Apr. 15, 2026
It came as the findings of an independent review criticised recent mistaken releases as "simply one symptom of a broken system".
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
But many in the market also believe that Netflix’s recent price increase, plus its growing advertising business, should contribute strongly to profitability this year, if not exactly in the first quarter.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026
Costly mistakes such as raising prices too aggressively in recent years have damaged demand for designer goods.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
“Based on his recent symptoms and—wow—a twenty-two percent drop in his weight since last time, there is indeed a strong possibility that Sir Fig Newton has diabetes.”
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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.
