Definition of "modern"
modern
adjective
comparative moderner or more modern, superlative modernest or most modern
Pertaining to a current or recent time and style; not ancient.
Quotations
But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […].
1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
The "Overhead Door" is the garage door that can be opened or closed at a touch every day in the year—regardless of the weather. It is the garage door that opens UP Completely Out of the Way. In short, it is the modern door for the modern garage—in step with the times.
1930 May 31, “The "Overhead Door" for Garage-Factory-Warehouse”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 202, number 48, page 110
The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.
2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55
(history) Pertaining to the modern period (c.1800 to contemporary times), particularly in academic historiography.
noun
plural moderns