Definition of modernity
1
: the quality or state of being or appearing to be modern
- Such details as street lamps, telephone booths, mailboxes and manhole covers have been expensively recreated to recall a past that makes even young Hungarians nostalgic and Western tourists regret the flashy modernity of their cities.
- —Henry Kamm
- His early work portrayed the idiosyncratic behavior of his zany upper-class family whose wealth and quest for modernity impelled them to try out all the latest inventions and devices of the time, from electric razors to automobiles to flying machines.
- —Naomi Rosenblum
2
: the modern era or world and especially the ideas and attitudes associated with the modern world
- For all his conservatism, Henry Adams's encounter with modernity led neither to romantic antiquarianism … nor to an intensified commitment to those very liberal arts that were under siege in a market society.
- —Peter N. Miller
