I wasn't sure I had ever used/heard the word recency before but, when trying to come up for a word to describe proximity in time, it popped into my head. It's in the Merriam-Webster dictionary so I must have come across it somewhere before. They do not list a synonym. Is anyone aware of one?
asked May 17 '12 at 13:11
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Yesterday? – JLG May 17 '12 at 13:24
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Thanks for all your suggestions! I have +1'd several that I found helpful - In the end, I think I just have to become comfortable with its use in the future. I find that @Kris suggestion of "temporal proximity" might also be an appropriate alternative for my specific context. Cheers – Marc in the box May 18 '12 at 8:05
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.....huh. I could have sworn there was a word like this (other than "recency" itself), but I can't think of any. – Kyle Strand Feb 7 '14 at 21:38
As far as recency is concerned, recentness appears to be the only synonym available.
However, from what I understand from your question, temporal proximity is what fits your need best.
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1Um, assuming that those needs don't include "not sounding like Spock." – Kyle Strand Feb 7 '14 at 21:36
There are some synonyms, but the choice of which one to use depends on context.
- Novelty
- Freshness
- Youth
If you want to describe the state of having just happened, recency is your best bet, barring other forms of the same word (recentness and, even more rarely, recentity).
Here are a few not mentioned yet:
- newness, modernness
- presence (which implies spatial proximity, too)
- contemporaneity
answered May 17 '12 at 20:40
There are a whole lot of synonyms for recent, so it is not hard to make a noun out of one of them. The following may fit:
- currentness
- contemporariness
