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

But contemporary music had always been in the orchestra’s DNA.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Licence now argues that a contemporary papal letter points to a much broader political and religious conflict that extended across medieval Europe.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

It helps that Early’s vision of our media-steeped contemporary lives sees through the shiny, digital facade.

From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026

Nor is collage-like composition unable to convey a depth of emotion—one can find plenty of that in the work of Deborah Roberts, a contemporary of Mr. Adams who deals with many of the same themes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Conversely, the same invention’s reception also varies greatly among contemporary societies.

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

Mary Herron, 21, who is leaving a boutique cupcake shop with two friends, has noticed a difference in attitudes amongst her contemporaries.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

The rejection of Victorian moral earnestness after World War I made the colorful Disraeli a more appealing character than his contemporaries, especially Gladstone.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

The teen adds that "most" of his male friends and contemporaries are considering careers in the military or similar - and recent recruitment numbers back up that surge in interest.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026

Those things could be left to his contemporaries.

From Salon ● May 27, 2026

It’s grown people who always believe the worst, she thought, confident that her contemporaries believed no more nor less than what Jem and Hank had circulated.

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee

Related Words

• new
• present-day