English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From now +‎ adays.

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/
  • (file)

Adverb edit

nowadays (not comparable)

  1. At the present time; in the current era. [from 14th c.]
    Cars nowadays are more efficient.
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 152, column 2:
      Me-thinkes miſtreſſe, you ſhould haue little reaſon for that: and yet to ſay the truth, reaſon and loue keepe little company together, now-adayes.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Cowardize, the Mother of Crueltie”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes [], book II, London: [] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount [], →OCLC, page 399:
      What is it that now adayes makes all our quarrells mortall?
    • 1762, A[nton] F[riedrich] Busching, “Introduction to the Description of Germany”, in [Patrick Murdoch], transl., A New System of Geography: In Which Is Given, a General Account of the Situation and Limits, the Manners, History, and Constitution, of the Several Kingdoms and States in the Known World; [], volumes IV (Containing, Part of Germany, viz. Bohemia, Moravia, Lusatia, Austria, Burgundy, Westphalia, and the Circle of the Rhine), London: [] A[ndrew] Millar [], →OCLC, § 4, page 4:
      The appellation of Germany, is ſeldom uſed now-a-days any where but in the title of the Emperor and Elector of Mentz.
    • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter VI, in Animal Farm [], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC, page 50:
      And in his spare moments, of which there were not many nowadays, he would go alone to the quarry, collect a load of broken stone, and drag it down to the site of the windmill unassisted.
    • 2012 June 11, Dick Vinegar, The Guardian:
      My favourite reading nowadays is Pulse, one of the house magazines for GPs.

Synonyms edit

Translations edit

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