presently
adverb
Usage of Presently
Both senses 1b and 2 are flourishing in current English, but many commentators have objected to sense 2. Since this sense has been in continuous use since the 15th century, it is not clear why it is objectionable. Perhaps a note in the Oxford English Dictionary (1909) that the sense has been obsolete since the 17th century in literary English is to blame, but the note goes on to observe that the sense is in regular use in most English dialects. The last citation in that dictionary is from a 1901 Leeds newspaper, written in Standard English. Sense 2 is most common in contexts relating to business and politics.
William Safire
Examples of presently in a Sentence
Rachel Raposas, People.com, 12 June 2025
McCartney, who played a residency at New York’s tiny Bowery Ballroom back in February, has no tour dates presently on his 2025 calendar.
—Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone, 8 June 2025
Thanks to its wildly successful reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, the company presently provides the vast majority of space launches for the Department of Defense.
—Lee Billings, Scientific American, 5 June 2025
The backward-looking mode involves starting with 2040 as the deadline for AGI and then working back from that achievement on a year-by-year basis to arrive at the year 2025 (matching AI presently).
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for presently
Cite this Entry
“Presently.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/presently. Accessed 20 Jun. 2025.
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presently
adverb
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