modernity

English

Etymology

From Latin modernitās or modern +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈdɜːn.ɪ.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈdɝn.ɪ.ti/

• Audio (Mid-Atlantic)

  (file)

Noun

modernity (plural modernities)

1. The quality of being modern or contemporary.

   He was impressed by the architecture's modernity.

   • 1944 November and December, “Notes and News: Lancaster-Heysham Electrification, L.M.S.”, in Railway Magazine, page 372:

     While the rolling-stock lacks modernity, the line equipment, with its single catenary suspension, has a surprisingly up-to-date appearance.

   • 2012 March-April, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared. Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.

2. Modern times.

   The organization survived from ancient times to modernity.

3. (history) Quality of being of the modern period of contemporary historiography.

Synonyms

• modernness

Derived terms

• behavioural modernity
• high modernity
• late modernity
• postmodernity

 

Related terms

• modern

Translations

quality of being modern

• Afrikaans: moderniteit
• Bulgarian: модерност f (modernost)
• Catalan: modernitat f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 現代性／现代性 (zh) (xiàndàixìng)

• Dutch: moderniteit (nl) f
• Finnish: nykyaikaisuus (fi), modernius (fi)
• German: Modernität (de) f
• Greek: νεωτερικότητα (el) f (neoterikótita)
• Indonesian: modernitas (id), kemodernan (id)
• Irish: nua-aimsearthacht f, nua-aoiseacht f
• Luxembourgish: Modernitéit f
• Macedonian: совре́меност f (sovrémenost), мо́дерност f (módernost)
• Malayalam: ആധുനികത (ādhunikata)
• Polish: nowoczesność (pl) f
• Portuguese: modernidade (pt) f
• Russian: современность (ru) f (sovremennostʹ)
• Spanish: modernidad (es) f
• Swedish: modernitet (sv) c
• Welsh: moderneiddiwch m, modernrwydd m
• West Frisian: moderniteit c

modern times — see also modern history

• Bulgarian: съвременност (bg) f (sǎvremennost)
• Finnish: nykyaika (fi)
• Greek: νεωτερικότητα (el) f (neoterikótita)
• Icelandic: nútími m
• Irish: nua-aois f
• Macedonian: совре́мие n (sovrémie)
• Polish: nowożytność (pl) f
• Swedish: modernitet (sv) c

quality of the modern historical period

• Finnish: modernius (fi)
• Swedish: modernitet (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} modernité (fr), ^{(please verify)} modernisme (fr)