contemporary

American  

[kuhn-tem-puh-rer-ee] / kənˈtɛm pəˌrɛr i /

adjective

1. existing, occurring, or living at the same time; belonging to the same time.

   Newton's discovery of the calculus was contemporary with that of Leibniz.

   Synonyms:

   simultaneous, concurrent, coexistent

2. of about the same age or date.

   a Georgian table with a contemporary wig stand.

3. of the present time; modern.

   a lecture on the contemporary novel.

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noun

• contemporaries
  plural

1. a person belonging to the same time or period with another or others.

2. a person of the same age as another.

contemporary British  

/ kənˈtɛmprərɪ /

adjective

1. belonging to the same age; living or occurring in the same period of time

2. existing or occurring at the present time

3. conforming to modern or current ideas in style, fashion, design, etc

4. having approximately the same age as one another

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noun

1. a person living at the same time or of approximately the same age as another

2. something that is contemporary

3. journalism a rival newspaper

Usage

Since contemporary can mean either of the same period or of the present period, it is best to avoid this word where ambiguity might arise, as in a production of Othello in contemporary dress. Modern dress or Elizabethan dress should be used in this example to avoid ambiguity

Synonym Usage

Contemporary, contemporaneous, coeval, coincident all mean happening or existing at the same time. Contemporary often refers to persons or their acts or achievements: Hemingway and Fitzgerald, though contemporary, shared few values. Contemporaneous is applied chiefly to events: the rise of industrialism, contemporaneous with the spread of steam power. Coeval refers either to very long periods of time—an era or an eon—or to remote or long ago times: coeval stars, shining for millenia with equal brilliance; coeval with the dawning of civilization. Coincident means occurring at the same time but without causal or other relationships: prohibition, coincident with the beginning of the 1920s.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• contemporariness
  noun
• noncontemporary
  adjective
• postcontemporary
  adjective
• ultracontemporary
  adjective
• uncontemporary
  adjective
• contemporarily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• contemporaries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of contemporary

First recorded in 1625–35; from Late Latin contemporārius, equivalent to Latin con- con- ( def. ) + tempor- (stem of tempus “time”; cf. temporal ¹ ( def. )) + -ārius -ary ( def. )

Explanation

Things that are contemporary are either happening at the same time or happening now. Contemporary art is recent art. In history class, if you hear that one famous person was a contemporary of another, that means they lived at the same time. Contemporaries are people and things from the same time period. Contemporary can also describe things happening now or recently. It's common to speak of contemporary music or contemporary furniture, for example. Those things are new, not old. Anything characteristic of the present day can be called contemporary.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

contemporary contemporaries

For a book that aspires to give contemporary strategic advice, this is a flaw.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

Ranging from classics like Columbo and Star Trek to contemporary favorites like Nathan for You and Ramy, there’s something for everyone.

From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026

Doe, 86, sued UFW Foundation and the César Chávez Foundation as Chavéz’s employers, saying the nonprofits enabled his attacks, ignored and rebuffed contemporary complaints about them, and covered up evidence they had occurred.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

If “Starship Troopers” was just the sci-fi schlock many contemporary critics took it to be, this wouldn’t be a big deal.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026

The few preserved African skeletal fragments contemporary with the Neanderthals are more similar to our modern skeletons than to Neanderthal skeletons.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

While I’d sooner take life advice from my golden retriever than a chatbot, my parents aligned with their contemporaries in treating Claude as a Google substitute.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

This includes direct matchups against those contemporaries, 288 wins, some very impressive postseason wins and stats, and including shutouts that match those of other pitchers of his time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

In truth, other England Under-19 contemporaries caught up while Flintoff struggled for first-team action and fitness.

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

His contemporaries would have been surprised to learn that Romans came to embrace Christianity in the fourth century.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Just as the period’s architects designed buildings from the same limited collection of motifs and shapes, Haydn and his contemporaries were designing music from a similarly limited catalogue.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• new
• present-day