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
Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025
Hell’s Kitchen is presently still playing on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.
McDonald, currently leading the Broadway revival of Gypsy at the Majestic Theatre, has won six Tonys, two Grammys and an Emmy throughout her career.
—Ashley Iasimone, Billboard, 1 June 2025
The tendencies presently occurring have to do with disenrollments and the difficulty to re-enroll once disenrolled.
—Jasmine Laws, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 May 2025
On its face, the Supreme Court’s terse, one-sentence opinion means that Oklahoma cannot presently create and fund a Roman Catholic charter school – an online K-12 institution.
—Charles J. Russo, The Conversation, 23 May 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 10 Jun. 2025.
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presently
adverb
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