contemporary
Noun pluralcontemporaries
Pluralcontemporaries
- 1Existing, happening, or made in the present age; modern and up to date.
Contemporary architecture often favors open, flexible spaces over rigid rooms.
The gallery focuses on contemporary art produced within the last decade.
UsageUsually before its noun: contemporary art, contemporary design. In historical writing it may mean of that time, not of today.
Similarmodern, current, present, present-day
Oppositearchaic
Note
Here the present is the silent partner. The word is short for "contemporary with now," which is why contemporary science, art or architecture means the work of our own day. In Nathan Rabin's review of Men in Black 3, Will Smith plays a contemporary cop who is dropped into the late 1960s.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The present-age sense can be understood as shorthand for contemporary with now. en.wiktionary.org
- Nathan Rabin's review of Men in Black 3 describes Will Smith as a contemporary cop transported to the late 1960s. avclub.com
- 2Existing or occurring in the same period of time as another person or thing; contemporaneous.
Dickens was contemporary with several other celebrated Victorian novelists.
The two trading civilizations were contemporary, exchanging goods across the sea.
UsageUsually contemporary with: Dickens was contemporary with Thackeray. Where it could be read as modern, contemporaneous is safer.
Similarcontemporaneous, coeval
Oppositeanachronistic
Note
The root sense, built from Latin con- "together" and tempus "time": things that share a time. It usually takes with, as when John Strype calls Henry VIII contemporary with the greatest monarchs of Europe.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Contemporary derives ultimately from Latin con- meaning together and tempus meaning time. en.wiktionary.org
- John Strype describes Henry VIII as contemporary with the greatest monarchs of Europe. archive.org
- 3A person or thing living or existing during the same period as another; also, a person of roughly the same age as someone else.
As a contemporary of Darwin, she encountered the same scientific controversies.
The painter is best understood alongside her contemporaries in the movement.
UsageA contemporary of someone, while the adjective takes with. Often plural with a possessive: her contemporaries.
Similarpeer
Note
It often names peers in the same field rather than mere coexistence, as with the YouTube essayists Katherine Cross sets beside Contrapoints.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Katherine Cross describes other YouTube creators as ContraPoints's contemporaries. theverge.com
Less common meaning
- 4A competing newspaper or magazine published during the same period.
Similarrival, competitor
Note
The press once used this word for the competition, usually as "our contemporaries." The Speaker, the Liberal Review, wrote in 1900 that many of its contemporaries had exaggerated. The usage narrows the general "same period" noun to rival publications. Outside historical writing or deliberate pastiche, readers will take "our contemporaries" to mean people of our own time.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The press historically used contemporary to mean a rival publication, with our contemporaries an attested expression. en.wiktionary.org
- A 1900 passage in The Speaker, the Liberal Review says that many of its contemporaries had exaggerated. en.wiktionary.org
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Latin con- ("with, together") joined temporārius, an adjective built on tempus ("time"), to make Medieval Latin contemporārius, the source of the word.