current

From Middle English curraunt, borrowed from Old French curant (French courant), present participle of courre (“to run”), from Latin currere, present active infinitive of currō (“I run”) (present participle currens). Doublet of horse.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌɹənt/, /ˈkɝɹənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)

current (countable and uncountable, plural currents)

1. the part of a fluid that moves continuously in a certain direction, especially (oceanography) short for ocean current.

   Synonyms: flow, stream

2. (electricity) the time rate of flow of electric charge.

   • Symbol: I (inclined upper case letter "I")
   • Units:

   SI: ampere (A)

   CGS: esu/second (esu/s)

   Synonym: electric current

3. a tendency or a course of events

   Synonyms: flow, stream, tendency

current (comparative currenter or more current, superlative currentest or most current)

1. existing or occurring at the moment
   • 2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:

     Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

   current events;  current leaders;  current negotiations

   Synonym: present

   Antonyms: future, past

2. generally accepted, used, practiced, or prevalent at the moment
   • Arbuthnot

     That there was current money in Abraham's time is past doubt.

   • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:

     The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them […] is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.

   current affairs;  current bills and coins;  current fashions

   Synonyms: fashionable, prevailing, prevalent, rife, up-to-date

   Antonyms: out-of-date, unfashionable

3. (obsolete) running or moving rapidly
   • Gower

     Like the current fire, that renneth / Upon a cord.

   • Tennyson

     To chase a creature that was current then / In these wild woods, the hart with golden horns.

• Curtner

current

1. third-person plural future active indicative of currō