Etimology
From Middle French moderne, from Late Latin modernus; from Latin modo (“just now”), originally ablative of modus (“measure”); hence, by measure, "just now". See also mode.
adjective
modern (comparative moderner or more modern, superlative modernest or most modern)
Pertaining to a current or recent time and style; not ancient.
(history) Pertaining to the modern period (c.1800 to contemporary times), particularly in academic historiography.
Examples
Our online interactive game is a modern approach to teaching about gum disease. Although it was built in the 1600s, the building still has a very modern look.
But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […].
The "Overhead Door" is the garage door that can be opened or closed at a touch every day in the year—regardless of the weather. It is the garage door that opens UP Completely Out of the Way. In short, it is the modern door for the modern garage—in step with the times.
In fact, he had created the conditions for the great horror of modern times.
The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.
Related words
synonyms
(pertaining to current or recent time): contemporary, current; see also Thesaurus:present
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "pertaining to current or recent time"): ancient, dated, former, historical, old, old-fashioned; see also Thesaurus:past
(antonym(s) of "pertaining to the modern period"): premodern
related terms
moderne
Modernisme
modernus
noun
modern (plural moderns)
Someone who lives in modern times.
Examples
The only supernatural agents which can in any manner be allowed to us moderns, are ghosts; but of these I would advise an author to be extremely sparing.
What the moderns could mean by their suppression of the final couplet's repeatings, cannot be conceiv'd […]
They at least had the immense and mighty imagination of which I speak; they could unthink the past. They could uncreate the Fall. With a reverence which moderns might think impudence, they could uncreate the Creation.
Even though we moderns can never crawl inside the skin of the ancient and think and feel as he did […] we must as historians make the attempt.
Yeats understood these ancient mysteries better than any modern.