1 (especially AmE) at the time you are speaking or writing; now
SYNCURRENTLY:
The crime is presently being investigated by the police. * These are the courses presently available.
HELPNOTE In this meaning presently usually comes before the verb, adjective or noun that it refers to.
2 (written) used to show that sth happened after a short time:
Presently, the door opened again and three men stepped out.
HELPNOTE In this meaning presently usually comes at the beginning of a sentence.
3 used to show that sth will happen soon
SYNSHORTLY:
She'll be here presently.
HELPNOTE In this meaning presently usually comes at the end of a sentence.
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BRITISH/AMERICAN
presently
In both BrE and AmE, presently can mean 'soon' or 'after a short time': I'll be with you presently. * Presently, I heard her leave the house. This use is slightly old-fashioned. In AmE the usual meaning of presently is 'at the present time' or 'now': She is presently living in Milan. * There is presently no cure for the disease. This use is becoming more accepted in BrE, but at present or currently are usually used.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
Where does this definition of presently come from?
This entry for presently is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is presently a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, presently is tagged as adverb.
Does presently appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — presently appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
