[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

recent \re"cent\ r=e"sent, a. l. recens, -entis: cf. f.
   r'ecent.
   1. of late origin, existence, or occurrence; lately come; not
      of remote date, antiquated style, or the like; not already
      known, familiar, worn out, trite, etc.; fresh; novel; new;
      modern; as, recent news.
      1913 webster

            the ancients were of opinion, that a considerable
            portion of that country egypt was recent, and
            formed out of the mud discharged into the
            neighboring sea by the nile.          --woodward.
      1913 webster

   2. geol. of or pertaining to the present or existing epoch;
      as, recent shells.
      1913 webster

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

recent
     adj 1: being new in a time not long past; "recent graduates"; "a
            recent addition to the house"; "recent buds on the
            apple trees"
     2: of the immediate past or just previous to the present time;
        "a late development"; "their late quarrel"; "his recent
        trip to africa"; "in recent months"; "a recent issue of
        the journal" syn: latea
     3: near to or not long before the present; "recent times"; "of
        recent origin"
see also:
latea 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

36 moby thesaurus words for "recent":
   ancient, brand-new, current, early, erstwhile, fore, former, fresh,
   immemorial, just out, late, later, latest, latter, modern,
   modernistic, neoteric, new, new-fashioned, newfangled, newly come,
   novel, of yesterday, old, olden, once, onetime, past, prehistoric,
   previous, primeval, primitive, prior, quondam, sometime, then

Recent >> R Words
Recent, definition of term: Recent
recent_pag1.html