"recent" in the noun sense
1. Holocene, Holocene epoch, Recent, Recent epoch
approximately the last 10,000 years
"recent" in the adjective sense
1. recent
new
"recent graduates"
"a recent addition to the house"
"recent buds on the apple trees"
2. late, recent
of the immediate past or just previous to the present time
"a late development"
"their late quarrel"
"his recent trip to Africa"
"in recent months"
"a recent issue of the journal"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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