'Today,' 'Present Day,' and 'Nowadays' Usage

'Today,' 'present day,' and 'nowadays' all refer to a time that is happening now, but they are used in different ways.

Today is a noun and usually refers to the current calendar day, or this day.

• Today is Wednesday.
• Today is September 26th.
• It will be cloudy all day today.

Present day is also a noun and usually refers to the current era or period of time, a time that exists now, and sometimes a period of years or decades or even centuries.

• The music of the present day is very different from the music of the Baroque period.

Sometimes present day is used as an adjective.

• If you look back at what cars/phones/computers used to look like, present-day models are very sophisticated.

Nowadays is an adverb that means "at the present time" and it can be used to mean the period of current years, decades, or centuries.

• Kids nowadays have much more freedom than they did in my day.
• Nowadays you can find just about anything you want to know on the internet.

Sometimes today is used as an adverb to mean the same thing as nowadays.

• Schools today/nowadays are struggling to get funding for the arts.
• Today/nowadays many women prefer to work outside the home.

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