contemporary
Americanadjective
-
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
-
of about the same age or date.
a Georgian table with a contemporary wig stand.
-
of the present time; modern.
a lecture on the contemporary novel.
noun
plural
contemporaries-
a person belonging to the same time or period with another or others.
-
a person of the same age as another.
adjective
-
belonging to the same age; living or occurring in the same period of time
-
existing or occurring at the present time
-
conforming to modern or current ideas in style, fashion, design, etc
-
having approximately the same age as one another
noun
-
a person living at the same time or of approximately the same age as another
-
something that is contemporary
-
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. )
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.
As the late Justice Antonin Scalia stressed, legislative floor explanations are weak evidence for the core originalist question: How would a contemporary informed reader interpret the words as enacted?
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
This contemporary era of American lunar investment has frequently been portrayed as an effort in competition with China, which is currently aiming to land humans on the Moon by 2030.
From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026
But a new “Faces of Death” puts a decidedly contemporary spin on the story while keeping its volatile sense of disorientation and danger.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 31, 2026
“My point is the contemporary oil price spike is quite small compared to any during the past 40 years which resulted in any meaningful rise in inflation,” says Paulsen.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 27, 2026
The club was decorated with trophies; oil paintings of legendary players such as Lasker, Morphy, and Capablanca; photographs of contemporary masters; and bookcases filled with works on chess strategy.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
