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

plural

contemporaries

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

Related Words

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

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

Etymology

Origin of contemporary

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

Breanna lives in Tacoma, Washington state, in the US and has trained in ballet, contemporary, and jazz dance since childhood.

From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026

I have the real honor of being more of a mentor than a contemporary to Lukita.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026

Christie’s contemporary art specialist Johanna Flaum said the rarity of the now-coveted series “makes them most sought after.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026

An exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia juxtaposes the functional yet beautiful designs of the religious sect with contemporary works inspired by its creations.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 4, 2026

Jomon Japan was a conservative miniature universe that maintained its isolation and changed surprisingly little over the course of 10,000 years—an island of stability in a fragile, rapidly changing contemporary world.

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

Related Words

• new
• present-day