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

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.

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