modernity

noun

mo·​der·​ni·​ty mə-ˈdər-nə-tē 

mä-,

-ˈder- 

1

: the quality or state of being or appearing to be modern

Such details as street lamps, telephone booths, mailboxes and manhole covers have been expensively recreated to recall a past that makes even young Hungarians nostalgic and Western tourists regret the flashy modernity of their cities.

—Henry Kamm

His early work portrayed the idiosyncratic behavior of his zany upper-class family whose wealth and quest for modernity impelled them to try out all the latest inventions and devices of the time, from electric razors to automobiles to flying machines.

—Naomi Rosenblum

2

: the modern era or world and especially the ideas and attitudes associated with the modern world

For all his conservatism, Henry Adams's encounter with modernity led neither to romantic antiquarianism … nor to an intensified commitment to those very liberal arts that were under siege in a market society.

—Peter N. Miller

Examples of modernity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The season juxtaposes traditional Japanese aesthetics (wabi-sabi, mono no aware) with intrusive modernity. —Martine Paris, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2025

There’s a video on YouTube of Gianni Agnelli being interviewed in 1988, striking the sartorial balance of tradition and modernity for which he was renowned. —Naomi Rougeau, Robb Report, 16 Mar. 2025

On the one hand, their blurring of genres, their fusion of architecture, art, and media, is part of a postmodernism that today has precious little purchase left on capitalist modernity—indeed, that fronts for that modernity as much as anything else. —News Desk, Artforum, 13 Mar. 2025

The Centre Pompidou is hosting a monograph of Suzanne Valadon, who helped birth artistic modernity. —Lily Templeton, WWD, 4 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1635, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for modernity

• eternity
• fraternity
• maternity
• paternity
• confraternity
• taciturnity