recent

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   new

   recent graduates

2. 2
   adj

   Having happened a short while ago.

   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.

3. 3
   adj

   Having done something a short while ago that distinguishes them as what they are called.

   The cause has several hundred recent donors.

4. 4
   adj

   Particularly in geology, palaeontology, and astronomy: having occurred a relatively short time ago, but still potentially thousands or even millions of years ago.

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

5. 5
   noun

   A recently viewed or accessed item.

   Obviously, the first time you launch this app, your Recents list is empty.

6. 6
   name

   The Holocene.

   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.

7. 7
   adj

   of the immediate past or just previous to the present time

8. 8
   adj

   Up-to-date; not old-fashioned or dated.

Etymology

As classifier for a geological epoch coinciding with human presence (“Recent era”) introduced by Charles Lyell in 1833.