Modern means belonging to the present time or recent past. When someone calls a building modern, they usually mean it was built recently and uses current styles and materials. Modern art refers to artistic movements from roughly the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, when artists broke from traditional techniques. Modern technology includes inventions like computers, smartphones, and the internet that define how we live today.

The word often suggests something new, current, or up-to-date. A modern kitchen might have sleek appliances and clean lines, while a modern approach to teaching might use computers and group projects instead of just lectures and textbooks.

But modern doesn't always mean better. Sometimes people use it neutrally, just marking when something comes from, like modern history (roughly from the 1500s onward) or modern English (the language from Shakespeare's time to now). Other times, calling something modern suggests it's improved or more advanced than what came before, though people often disagree about whether newer ways are actually better than traditional ones.

The opposite of modern is usually ancient, old-fashioned, or traditional. What seems modern today will eventually seem old-fashioned to future generations, just as Victorian houses once seemed cutting-edge but now look historical to us.