recent

Borrowed from Latin recēns (genitive recentis). As classifier for a geological epoch coinciding with human presence (“Recent era”) introduced by Charles Lyell in 1833.[1]

• enPR: rē'sənt, IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːsənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːsənt
• Hyphenation: re‧cent

recent (comparative more recent, superlative most recent)

1. Having happened a short while ago.

   Synonym: (rare, obsolete) nudiustertian

   • 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 22 February 2016, retrieved 13 June 2013, page 193:

     Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.

2. Up-to-date; not old-fashioned or dated.
3. Having done something a short while ago that distinguishes them as what they are called.

   The cause has several hundred recent donors.

   I met three recent graduates at the conference.

4. (sciences) Particularly in geology, palaeontology, and astronomy: having occurred a relatively short time ago, but still potentially thousands or even millions of years ago.
   • 2020 October 4, Evan Gough, "We Now Have Proof a Supernova Exploded Perilously Close to Earth 2.5 Million Years Ago", Science Alert:

     Finding it now means it was produced in more recent times, in astronomical terms.

5. (obsolete, geology, astronomy, capitalized) Of the Holocene, particularly pre-21st century.[2]

• recently
• recent memory

recent (countable and uncountable, plural recents)

1. (obsolete, geology, capitalized) An earlier term for the Holocene.
   • 2012, Lydia Pyne; Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World, Penguin, →ISBN:

     He [Charles Lyell] ignored Quaternary, a term he never accepted. The Recent addressed the age “tenanted by man,” which at the time barely extended beyond the chronicles of the Bible.

• Center, Centre, center, centre, tenrec

Borrowed from Latin recens, recentem. First attested 1653[1]. See also rentar.

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /rəˈsent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /rəˈsen/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /reˈsent/

recent (masculine and feminine plural recents)

1. recent

• recentment

• rentar

• “recent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “recent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “recent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from French récent, from Middle French [Term?], from Latin recēns.

• IPA^(key): /rəˈsɛnt/, /reːˈsɛnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧cent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

recent (comparative recenter, superlative recentst)

1. recent

• recentelijk

Borrowed from French récent, from Latin recēns. Doublet of rece, which was inherrited.

recent m or n (feminine singular recentă, masculine plural recenți, feminine and neuter plural recente)

1. recent