coterminous
Americanadjective
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having the same border or covering the same area.
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being the same in extent; coextensive in range or scope.
adjective
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having a common boundary; bordering; contiguous
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coextensive or coincident in range, time, scope, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of coterminous
First recorded in 1790–1800; re-formation of conterminous ( def. ); see co-
Explanation
Use the word coterminous to describe things that are equal in scope. If an earthquake in Australia was coterminous with the earthquake in China, that means it caused the same amount of destruction. The adjective coterminous derives from the Latin word conterminus, meaning "bordering upon, having a common boundary." When something is coterminous, it has the same boundaries, or is of equal extent or length of time as something else. The expansion of the American Old West was coterminous with the expansion of the Great American Frontier. Your mayor's term in office might be conterminous with increased access to social services.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Coterminous with an era in which divorce rates soared and casual sex became socially unexceptionable, Mr and Mrs proselytised for the straight and narrow virtue of heterosexual commitment.
From The Guardian • Feb. 20, 2013
Coterminous with Ursule's wing was a flagged court where a stone well-head stained with gray and orange lichen mirrored a circumscribed world.
From Sinister Street, vol. 2 by MacKenzie, Compton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
