Modern means belonging to now rather than to the past. A modern kitchen with flat doors and no handles; modern medicine; a modern block of flats where the old brewery stood.
Historians stretch the word much further back: the modern era begins around 1500, and early modern English is Shakespeare's. In art and design it names a style rather than a date — modern art, modernism, mid-century modern — so a modern painting can be a hundred years old. The family runs modernise, modernisation, modernity, modernist. 'Modern-day' means simply present-day: a modern-day Robin Hood. The trap is treating modern as a synonym for new: a modern building can be shabby, and a brand-new house can be built to look Victorian.
1adjectivemodernBelonging to the present time; up to date.~64%
“Modern phones do far more than make calls.”
synonyms: current, contemporary, present-day
2adjectiverecentBelonging to the recent part of history, as opposed to ancient or medieval.~32%
“The course covers modern history from 1789 onwards.”
3adjectivestyleIn the style of twentieth-century art, architecture or design.~4%
“The gallery's modern wing is all glass and concrete.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 23 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: contemporary
Latin modernus was built on modo, 'just now', which is a form of modus, 'measure'. Modern therefore means something close to 'measured to this moment' — what belongs to the present count of time. The same modus lies behind mode.
Proto-Indo-European
*med-
Latin
modernus
Middle French
moderne
English, today
modern
Built from
From Middle French moderne, from Latin modernus; from Latin modo (“just now”), originally ablative of modus (“measure”); hence, by measure, "just now". See also mode.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA