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current

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Generally accepted, used, practiced, or prevalent at the moment.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuruhnt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɝənt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Generally accepted, used, practiced, or prevalent at the moment; having currency.

  2. Existing or occurring at the moment.

noun

  1. The part of a fluid that moves continuously in a certain direction, especially (oceanography) ellipsis of ocean current.

  2. by extensionSouth Asia

    Electricity, power in general.

  3. The generally unidirectional movement of a gas or fluid.

  4. Dominant course (suggestive of running water) of successive events or ideas

  5. A tendency or a course of events.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Generally accepted, used, practiced, or prevalent at the moment; having currency.

Used this way, current is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use current

  • “The raft floated downstream on the current.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Dominant / tendency

current account

Occurring

current year

Other combinations

current densitycurrent assetscurrent statecurrent researchcurrent statuscurrent situation

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • currentlyadverbDerived adverb

    At this time or period.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • current electricitynounCompound term

    A flow of electric charge.

  • current intelligencenounCompound term

    Intelligence of all types and forms of immediate interest.

  • current of airnounCompound term

    Air moving (sometimes with considerable force) from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.

  • current unitnounCompound term

    A measure of the amount of electric charge flowing past a circuit point at a specific time.

  • current assetsnounCompound term

    Assets in the form of cash (or easily convertible into cash).

  • current accountnounCompound term

    That part of the balance of payments recording a nation's exports and imports of goods and services and transfer payments.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: generally accepted or used or practiced

actual

noun

Sense: part of a fluid that moves continuously in a certain direction

streamflowtopicalincumbent

Antonyms

Sense: generally accepted or used or practiced

noncurrentRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.