until now
300
1.0
- idiom
:
hasta ahora
- Unfortunately, until now, no antibiofilm drug has been registered and used in clinical practice.
- until now only
- until now the program
- until now the view
And up until now, this is my speculation.
- And up until now, this is my speculation.
- The debt up until now has been driven by all sorts of factors.
- The last three years until now, how have you grown?
- OK, so up until now, nothing is changing this problem, right?
- You know, and I, I, you know, I didn't hear this call until now, but I didn't do that.
- And it has been given very little notice until now.
- This is from like from high school until now.
Examples
-
And I wish I didn't have to wait until now to realize that.
-
A fact which has kept him alive until now.
-
And up until now he was right.
-
So, you know, up until now, not too much trouble with that.
-
OK, so up until now, nothing is changing this problem, right?
-
Gosh, why did it take until now to actually make a move?
-
If any of you thought it's been difficult until now, just wait till you see what's ahead.
Fiction book (1993) -
I do not know of any case where, at least up until now, there was any political interference.
Academic text (1999) -
The debt up until now has been driven by all sorts of factors.
-
He had been living in the city until now, but he decided to move to the countryside.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Up to now
858
1.0
Up to the time when something happens
35
3.5
Up to the present time, often used when something has not happened
30
1.6
Before now, until the present moment
7
9.7
Before this time
1
9.9
Before that time
1
7.6
Up to a certain time or event
How Long
300
1.0
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'so far; up to this point' follows directly from combining 'until' (up to) with 'now' (the present time), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer the MWE meaning. This temporal composition is a common and transparent pattern cross-linguistically, making it easily comprehensible at B1 level.
Etymology
Until now comes from the simple image of time as a line: something continues up to a stopping point — until — and that stopping point is the present moment — now. So, until now means 'up to this point' or 'so far'.