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recently

adverb

Simple meaning

A short while ago.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

reesuhntlee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹisəntli

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.

adverb

  1. referring to a point of time in the recent past

    A short while ago.

  2. (referring to a time period starting in the recent past and including the present) in recent times.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (referring to a point of time in the recent past) a short while ago.

Used this way, recently 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 recently

  • “He was in Paris recently.”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Referring

recently developedrecently reported

Other combinations

recently publishedrecently maderecently become

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • fresh

    Recently; just recently; most recently.

  • lately

    In the recent past.

  • late

    Not long ago; just now, recently.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • recentnounBase word

    Approximately the last 10,000 years.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: (referring to a point of time in the recent past) a short while ago

of late

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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.