by Liz Walter
Last month I wrote about ways of talking about people or animals that are young. This post looks at a related set: words for things that are new or modern.
Firstly, if we want to emphasize that something is very new, we say it is brand new: She bought herself a brand new sports car. This phrase means that something has just been made, but the thing itself does not necessarily have to be modern.
To talk about very modern things, we often use the phrase the latest in front of the thing we are talking about: He likes to buy all the latest sound equipment. We also use ‘the latest’ to talk about very recent information. Another word for this is up-to-the-minute: Have you heard the latest news? We are receiving up-to-the-minute reports from the scene of the accident.
Cutting-edge describes things that use the most recent ideas and methods and are often rather experimental: The company uses cutting-edge technology to reduce waste. If we describe something as bleeding-edge, we mean that it is still being developed and is not yet perfect: Using these bleeding-edge tools for complex data is risky. State-of-the-art is similar to ‘cutting-edge’ and implies very high quality: She has her own state-of-the-art recording studio.
There are several words connected with objects or ideas that are new and very different from what has existed before. Avant-garde is used to describe new styles, for example of art or literature: The city’s avant-garde architecture is not to everyone’s taste. If something is so modern that it seems to belong in science fiction, we can describe it as futuristic or space-age: They showed us their futuristic designs for the new hotel. He was wearing a space-age suit made of plastic.
Something that is innovative uses completely new ideas: They used innovative techniques to look deep into space. We use the word groundbreaking to describe ideas or inventions that help to make important progress in something: They carried out groundbreaking medical research.
If something such as a system, invention or area of study is new and not fully developed, we can say that it is (still) in its infancy: Electric transport is still in its infancy. If something has never happened or existed before, we say it is unprecedented: Our hospitals are seeing unprecedented levels of demand. We also use the idiom break the mould (UK)/mold (US) for things that are totally different from what has existed before: The show broke the mould of traditional TV chat shows.
I hope this post has given you some brand new words and phrases to use – let me know if you can think of any others!