Other forms: presents
The present is the time happening right now — not before, not after. In the present, at present, the present day.
At present means currently. In grammar, the present tense is the one for now and for habits. As an adjective, present means both existing now and being in the place: everybody present, present at the meeting. A present is also a gift, stressed the same way; and the verb present, stressed on the second syllable, means to give formally or to introduce. Note presence, and no time like the present.
1nountimeThe time happening right now.~35%
“Stop worrying about the past and try to live in the present.”
2adjectiveplaceBeing in the place, or existing now.~65%
“Everybody present voted the same way.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 27 sentences found in the wild and placed 26 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
present is the current time.
Latin praesens means being in front — prae, before, plus esse, to be. To be present is to be in front of somebody, and the tense is named for what is in front of the speaker rather than for the time.
Latin
praesens
Old French
present
Middle English
present
English, today
present
Built from
From Middle English present, from Old French present, from Latin praesens, present participle of praesum (“to be present”), from Latin prae- (“pre-”) + sum (“to be”). andweard.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA