What does nowadays mean?
Word: Nowadays
Part of Speech: Adverb
Meaning: Nowadays means at the present time, especially when compared with the past.
Synonyms: today, currently, these days
Antonyms: previously
Word origin: Comes from Middle English, where it was often written as separate words.
How do you spell nowadays?
Syllables: now - a - days
Tricky part: It is one word, with no spaces and no hyphens: students write now a days or now-a-days.
Watch out for: now-a-days, nowadayes, nowerdays
Memory tip: Write it the way a single word looks on a calendar page: nowadays runs on with no gaps and no hyphens.
Nowadays in a sentence
Example 1: Nowadays my grandmother pays for vegetables with her phone.
Example 2: Very few people write letters by hand nowadays.
Example 3: Nowadays our school bus has a GPS tracker.
Fun Fact
In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom remarks that reason and love keep little company together nowadays.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. nowadays 2. annualy 3. yestarday 4. fortnigt
a) a period of two weeks
b) the day before today
c) once every year
d) in these times, unlike the old days
Show answer
d) in these times, unlike the old days. Fortnigt is short of an h, yestarday has a where e belongs and annualy is short of an l, so nowadays is the one to pick.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word nowadays as used in the sentence:
Nowadays most children in our colony learn to swim at the new pool.
a) rarely
b) suddenly
c) usually
d) formerly
Show answer
d) formerly. Formerly points to the past, while nowadays is about the present.
Word Cookie
One word in this sentence is misspelt. Find it:
My grandmother says that nowdays children spend far more time on screens than on the playground after school.
a) playground
b) screens
c) nowdays
d) grandmother
Show answer
c) nowdays. A small a sits between now and days; nowdays has lost it.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Our grandparents travelled by bullock cart, but yawdsona we take the metro.
a) weekdays
b) holidays
c) nowadays
d) nowhere
Show answer
c) nowadays. Weekdays and holidays need letters the jumble lacks, and nowhere an h, r and e; only nowadays fits.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What is far more common nowadays than fifty years ago?
a) playing gramophone records
b) sending telegrams
c) using typewriters
d) shopping on the internet
Show answer
d) shopping on the internet
2. Which sentence uses nowadays correctly?
a) Nowadays I was born in 2012.
b) Nowadays we will visit Goa next May.
c) Nowadays my uncle finished school in 1990.
d) Nowadays most trains have electric engines.
Show answer
d) Nowadays most trains have electric engines.
