by now

English

Etymology

See by, sense 3: “not later than (the given time); not later than the end of (the given time interval)”.

Prepositional phrase

by now

1. The hour being what it is; the hour being so advanced; considering that it is so far in time already; now that so much time has elapsed; if not before, now at the latest.

   Coordinate term: by then

   Near-synonyms: already, at this stage, at this point

   My parents should have arrived by now. I wonder what's keeping them.

   People landed on the Moon in 1969. We should have built cities there by now.

Translations

Translations

• Dutch: onderhand (nl)
• Finnish: tähän mennessä
• French: à cette heure (fr), à l’heure qu’il est (fr)
• Italian: ormai (it)
• Japanese: 今頃 (ja) (imagoro)
• Polish: do tej pory (pl), teraz (pl), już (pl)
• Portuguese: a essa hora, já (pt), a esta altura
• Spanish: ya (es)
• Swedish: vid det här laget (sv)
• Welsh: erbyn hyn

See also

• late in the day

References

• “by now”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.