最近 means 'recently' or 'lately' and functions primarily as an adverb indicating a time period close to the present — typically the past few days, weeks, or sometimes months. It is formed by combining 最 (zuì), meaning 'most', and 近 (jìn), meaning 'near' or 'close'; together they literally mean 'most near', i.e., the time nearest to now. Unlike English 'recent', 最近 is not used attributively before nouns (e.g., you cannot say *最近事件* without adding 的 — it must be 最近的事件).

This word frequently appears at the beginning or middle of a sentence to set temporal context, especially in spoken Mandarin. It often co-occurs with perfective aspect markers like 了 or ongoing constructions with 在…呢. While it can refer to future proximity in rare literary contexts, in everyday usage it almost always refers to the recent past. It’s neutral in register and widely appropriate in both casual and formal speech.