coeval

American  

[koh-ee-vuhl] / koʊˈi vəl /

adjective

1. of the same age, date, or duration; equally old.

   Analysis has proved that this manuscript is coeval with that one.

2. coincident.

   Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were only approximately coeval.

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noun

1. a contemporary.

   He is more serious than his coevals.

coeval British  

/ ˌkəʊɪˈvælɪtɪ, kəʊˈiːvəl /

adjective

1. of or belonging to the same age or generation

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noun

1. a contemporary

Related Words

See contemporary.

Other Word Forms

• coevality noun
• coevally adverb

Etymology

Origin of coeval

First recorded in 1595–1605; from Late Latin coaev(us) (equivalent to co- “with, together” + -aevus, adjective derivative of aevum “age”) + -al adjective suffix; co-, -al ¹

Explanation

When two things live or happen during the same period of time, they are coeval. If you annotate an old poem, the annotations and the text of the poem are not coeval. The word coeval comes from the Latin co- "jointly" or "in common" and aevum "age." The beginning of Major League Baseball is coeval with the invention of the telephone. People can be coeval, though more often you'll hear contemporary used to describe people who are about the same age. You and your contemporaries probably view the world a lot differently than your grandparents' generation.

Example Sentences

This approach examines only supernovae from young, coeval galaxies -- those with stars of similar ages -- across the entire redshift range.

From Science Daily • Nov. 6, 2025

He died at 94, his life nearly coeval with the 20th century.

From New York Times • Nov. 19, 2018

That’s what Deford was thinking about thirty years ago, when he wrote about Gus Johnson, Deford’s own preferred sporting coeval.

From The New Yorker • May 30, 2017

Martin Scorsese, Spielberg’s coeval and the director of roughly the same number of films, has helped five actors to Oscars.

From Slate • Jan. 30, 2012

There is every reason to believe that these sub-varieties are coeval; that is, the same causes which produced one, produced at the same time all the others.

From The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races With Particular Reference to Their Respective Influence in the Civil and Political History of Mankind by Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)