contemporary

[ kuhn-tem-puh-rer-ee ]
/ kənˈtɛm pəˌrɛr i /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR contemporary 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

1625–35; < Late Latin contempor- (see contemporize) + -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 FROM contemporary

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH contemporary

contemporary contemporaneous (see synonym study at the current entry)

Words nearby contemporary

contemplation, contemplative, contemplative order, contempo, contemporaneous, contemporary, contemporize, contempt, contempt of congress, contempt of court, contemptible

Words related to contemporaries

breed, crop, time, span, eon, rank, step, period, epoch, day, peers, aeon, times, associate, colleague, compeer, contemporary, equal

Example sentences from the Web for contemporaries

British Dictionary definitions for contemporaries

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

noun plural -raries

Derived forms of contemporary

contemporarily, adverb contemporariness, noun

Word Origin for 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