Presently

How to spell presently

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce presently

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does presently mean?

1. adverbIn a short while; before long.
2. adverbAt the present time; currently.

Presently in a sentence

• The manager will see you presently, once the meeting ends.

• She is presently employed as a senior analyst at the firm.

• The kettle boiled, and presently a cup of tea was ready.

• The building is presently closed for renovation work.

Where does presently come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin praesens, the present participle of praeesse, meaning 'to be at hand' or 'to be before', built from prae 'before' and esse 'to be'. It passed into English through Old French as the adjective 'present', describing something existing or happening now, and by the late 1300s English had attached the native adverb suffix -ly to form 'presently'. Curiously, the oldest sense meant 'at this very moment', but by the 1500s the meaning had drifted to 'soon' or 'shortly afterwards', as if 'right now' softened into 'in a little while'. Modern usage keeps both senses alive, which is why a sentence can be genuinely ambiguous without context. The spelling is regular, but the unstressed middle and the silent shift from 'present' to 'presently' catch some writers who drop a letter.

How the word is built

• present (from Latin praesens: being at hand)
• -ly (adverb suffix)