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say it: now
now is an adverb and noun meaning "in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events". It carries 8 recorded senses.
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
“President Kennedy now calls in the National Guard”
“Washington now decides to cross the Delaware”
“the ship is now listing to port”
used to preface a command or reproof or request
“now hear this!”
“now pay attention”
at the present moment
“goods now on sale”
“the now-aging dictator”
“they are now abroad”
“he is busy at present writing a new novel”
“it could happen any time now”
without delay or hesitation; with no time intervening
“he answered immediately”
“found an answer straightaway”
“an official accused of dishonesty should be suspended forthwith”
“Come here now!”
(prefatory or transitional) indicates a change of subject or activity
“Now the next problem is...”
in the immediate past
“told me just now”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for now come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.