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Nearly vs Recently - What's the difference?

nearly | recently |

As adverbs the difference between nearly and recently

is that nearly is while recently is in the recent past; newly; lately; freshly; not long since.

nearly

English

Adverb

(en-adv)
  • *1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , III.1:
  • *:And whosoever hath traced mee and nearely looked into my humours, Ile loose a good wager if hee confesse not that there is no rule in their schoole, could, a midde such crooked pathes and divers windings, square and report this naturall motion, and maintaine an apparance of liberty and licence so equall and inflexible […].
  • With close relation; intimately.
  • * (John Locke) (1632-1705)
  • Let that which he learns next be nearly conjoined with what he knows already.
  • * 1837 , The Dublin University Magazine
  • She could have joined most comfortably in all their supposings, and suspicions, and doubts, and prognostications, but the honour of the family was too nearly concerned to allow free reins to her tongue.
  • * 1847 , (Herman Melville), (Omoo)
  • [H]e was also accounted a man of wealth, and was nearly related to a high chief.
  • Closely, in close proximity.
  • *c. 1606 , (William Shakespeare), Macbeth , First Folio 1623, IV.2:
  • *:I doubt some danger do's approach you neerely .
  • In close approximation; almost, virtually.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=Kevin Heng
  • , title=Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily? , volume=101, issue=3, page=184, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.}}

    Synonyms

    * almost, nigh, well-nigh, near, close to, next to, practically, virtually

    recently

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • In the recent past; newly; lately; freshly; not long since.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Chico Harlan
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Japan pockets the subsidy … , passage=Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."}}

    Antonyms

    * long ago * long since