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

“The realities of contemporary pricing sobered us up very quickly. We abandoned the idea.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

Otton Rivadeneira, the director of Ecuador's Civil Registry, said the policy is in line with contemporary family structures.

From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026

What’s most depressing about all these stories is that they pointedly highlight the problem with contemporary American media.

From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026

Also on Wednesday, the BBC announced it has grown its global audience to reach over half a billion people every week for the first time since contemporary records began.

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026

Geneticists were able to collect enough intact Neanderthal DNA from fossils to make a broad comparison between it and the DNA of contemporary humans.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

As the exhibit’s days count down, the inspired visions from Kahlo, Rivera and their contemporaries continue to transfix visitors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 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

Rollins survived virtually all of his contemporaries from the 1950s and ’60s, the period in which the fundamental elements of the contemporary jazz that followed for the next half-century were established.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026

But a narrative throughline hellbent on retribution neatly threads Harris’ fiery aesthetic choices together, giving “Is God Is” far more substance — and much more thematic intrigue — than its contemporaries.

From Salon ● May 19, 2026

Within the next two decades or so, most of his educated contemporaries gradually came to the same conclusion.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• new
• present-day