contemporary

[ kuhn-tem-puh-rer-ee ]

See synonyms for: contemporary contemporaries on Thesaurus.com

adjective

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.
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 con·tem·po·rar·ies.

a person belonging to the same time or period with another or others.
a person of the same age as another.

Origin of contemporary

First recorded in 1625–35; from Late Latin contemporārius, equivalent to Latin con- con- + tempor- (stem of tempus “time”; cf. temporal¹) + -ārius -ary

synonym study For contemporary

1. 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 words for contemporary

1	coexistent, concurrent, simultaneous

See synonyms for contemporary on Thesaurus.com

Other words from contemporary

con·tem·po·rar·i·ly, adverb
con·tem·po·rar·i·ness, noun
non·con·tem·po·rar·y, adjective, noun, plural non·con·tem·po·rar·ies.
post·con·tem·po·rar·y, adjective
ul·tra·con·tem·po·rar·y, adjective, noun, plural ul·tra·con·tem·po·rar·ies.
un·con·tem·po·rar·y, adjective

Words that may be confused with contemporary

contemporary , contemporaneous (see synonym study at the current entry)

Words Nearby contemporary

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use contemporary in a sentence

Brokerages get paid for their customers’ orders from market makers—contemporary versions of what Madoff’s trading company was.
How Ponzi mastermind Bernie Madoff enabled the US retail trading boom | John Detrixhe | August 30, 2020 | Quartz
If Robins had been a contemporary of Peter Gethers, he might have been a candidate for the Rotisserie League.
The Economics of Sports Gambling (Ep. 388 Rebroadcast) | Stephen J. Dubner | August 20, 2020 | Freakonomics
In contemporary times, researchers have sought to understand the ways in which rituals bind people together.
Why do we miss the rituals put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic? | Sujata Gupta | August 14, 2020 | Science News
Price does not contain all relevant information for many shoppers in a contemporary supermarket.
How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War (Ep. 386 Rebroadcast) | Stephen J. Dubner | August 6, 2020 | Freakonomics
Which is why Haile’s contemporaries have been mostly forgiving about Scroll, the ad-free subscription service he teased for three years before finally launching widely six months ago.
Inside Tony Haile’s expedition to (help) save the news business | Steven Perlberg | July 27, 2020 | Digiday

Some contemporary police have military backgrounds to fall back on.
A Veteran’s View: NYC Cold War Between Cops and City Hall | Matt Gallagher | December 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
That goes for its contemporary membership roster as well as for the photographers represented in the exhibition.
A History of Paris in 150 Photographs | Sarah Moroz | December 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Paris as depicted by contemporary photography appears… lackluster.
A History of Paris in 150 Photographs | Sarah Moroz | December 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
But contemporary classical music has changed, and the field is now spawning many appealing and genre-bending works.
The Best Albums of 2014 | Ted Gioia | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
According to contemporary reports, at several of the truces, there were rough soccer matches between the German and British sides.
Royals Remember The Christmas Truce of 1914 | Tom Sykes | December 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
He was contemporary with Milton, and preferred before him by critics of the day, but has now sunk into oblivion.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel Munsell
But while the older schools of art delighted him, he followed with no less attention the movement of contemporary painting.
Bastien Lepage | Fr. Crastre
Why therefore did the elder Amati, contemporary and probably pupil of Gaspar di Salo, change the model and size of the instrument?
Violins and Violin Makers | Joseph Pearce
We gather that in our contemporary's opinion it is high time that our Universities recognised "the writing on the wall."
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, April 28, 1920 | Various
Decollat,” says a contemporary document, with a grim succinctness, “in castrum Londin: vulgo turris appellatur.
The Portsmouth Road and Its Tributaries | Charles G. Harper

British Dictionary definitions for contemporary

contemporary

/ (kənˈtɛmprərɪ) /

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

nounplural -raries

a person living at the same time or of approximately the same age as another
something that is contemporary

journalism a rival newspaper

Origin of contemporary

C17: from Medieval Latin contemporārius, from Latin com- together + temporārius relating to time, from tempus time

usage For contemporary

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

Derived forms of contemporary

contemporarily, adverb
contemporariness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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