Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb At the present time.
- adverb At once; immediately.
- adverb In the immediate past; very recently.
- adverb At this point in the series of events; then.
- adverb At times; sometimes.
- adverb Nowadays.
- adverb In these circumstances; as things are.
- adverb Used to introduce a command, reproof, or request.
- adverb Used to indicate a change of subject or to preface a remark.
- conjunction Seeing that; since. Often used with that:
- noun The present time or moment.
- adjective Of the present time; current.
- adjective Slang Currently fashionable; trendy.
- idiom (again/then) Occasionally.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The present time or moment; this very time.
- Present.
- At the present point of time; at the present time; at this juncture.
- In these present times; nowadays.
- But lately; a little while ago.
- At or by that past time (in vivid narration); at this (or that) particular point in the course of events; thereupon; then.
- Things being so; as the case stands; after what has been said or done.
- Used as an emphatic expletive in cases of command, entreaty, remonstrance, and the like: as, come, now, stop that!
- under erst.
- A continuative, usually introducing an inference from or an explanation of what precedes.
- Equivalent to now that, with omission of that.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The present time or moment; the present.
- adverb At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly.
- adverb Very lately; not long ago.
- adverb At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to.
- adverb In present circumstances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation.
- adverb now and then; occasionally.
- adverb [Obs.] again and again; repeatedly.
- adverb at one time and another; indefinitely; occasionally; not often; at intervals.
- adverb [Obs.] at this very instant; precisely now.
- adverb alternately; at one time … at another time.
- adjective rare Existing at the present time; present.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Present ;current . - adjective archaic, law At the time the
will is written. Used in order to prevent anyinheritance from being transferred to a person of a future marriage. Does not indicate the existence of a previous marriage. - adjective informal
Fashionable ;popular ;up to date ;current . - adverb At the present
time . - adverb sentence Used to introduce a point, a remonstration or a rebuke.
- adverb
Differently from the immediate past; differently from a more remote past or a possible future; differently from all other times. - adverb Differently from the situation before a (stated or implied) event or change of circumstance.
- adverb At the time reached within a narration.
- adverb In the context of urgency.
- conjunction
since ,because , in light of the fact. - interjection Indicates a
signal tobegin . - noun uncountable The
present time.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb in the immediate past
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word now.
Examples
-
˜It is now the case that it will be the case that Socrates is sitting down™, whereas there is no genuine way of representing the indexical ˜now™ in the l-calculus (the date variable z is not an indexical, any more than ˜25 December 2006™ is an indexical).
The Sun Is Not 2009
-
That's why this objection is invalid: if you can't predict the weather 5 days from now, how can you predict something about 100 years from now.
-
We live in the now, trailing, to be sure, a few seconds of the past as we press ahead into the future, but it's always _now_ wherever (whenever) we go.
-
In real life, Linda was laid-back nearly to the point of sloth, but now, she was the one who most intensely wanted them to have everything _now_.
-
The actual presence of a physical God was irrelevant, because if there was a creation of the here and now, regardless of any theoretical faith, that only meant, that without a doubt, I was responsible to just the here and now previous: next thought - 2006-02-01 ehh?
ugotsoul Diary Entry ugotsoul 2003
-
He had dreamed of these things, and now he saw that they were real, so that nightmare merged with _now_, and he could gaze down at it with open eyes and scream at last with open mouth.
This Crowded Earth Robert Bloch 1955
-
I had lost him now, and _now_ I knew his value when it was too late.
Kate Coventry An Autobiography G. J. Whyte-Melville
-
It is well known that most of the slaveholders _now_ insist, that all protecting duties are unconstitutional, and that on account of the tariff the Union was nearly rent by the very men who are now horrified by the danger to which it is exposed by these _petitions_!
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 4 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society
-
And can we not lift ourselves into that serene atmosphere of love of country and of our race, above all selfish schemes or mere party devices, and contemplate the grandeur of these results, if now, _now_, NOW we will only do our duty?
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy Various
-
"Lord Jesus, if you will take away this toothache right now, _now_, I will be your little girl for three years."
How I Know God Answers Prayer The Personal Testimony of One Life-Time Rosalind Goforth
zero commented on the word now
♥
February 7, 2007
oroboros commented on the word now
Won in reverse.
July 22, 2007
gangerh commented on the word now
There comes a point when you need to tell your customer what to do. They need to call you, or order from you or 'click here'. But you don't want them doing it tomorrow or next week. You want them to do it now - so tell them.
'15 words that will make you money'
July 4, 2009
yarb commented on the word now
Because your customer is a moron incapable of so much as passing wind without being ordered to do so by a marketer?
July 4, 2009