contemporaneous

adjective

con·​tem·​po·​ra·​ne·​ous kən-ˌtem-pə-ˈrā-nē-əs 

: existing, occurring, or originating during the same time

social and political events that were contemporaneous with each other

contemporaneously adverb

contemporaneousness noun

Synonyms

• coetaneous
• coeval
• coexistent
• coexisting
• coextensive
• coincident
• coincidental
• concurrent
• contemporary
• coterminous
• simultaneous
• synchronic
• synchronous

Choose the Right Synonym for contemporaneous

contemporary, contemporaneous, coeval, synchronous, simultaneous, coincident mean existing or occurring at the same time.

contemporary is likely to apply to people and what relates to them.

Abraham Lincoln was contemporary with Charles Darwin

contemporaneous is more often applied to events than to people.

contemporaneous accounts of the kidnapping

coeval refers usually to periods, ages, eras, eons.

two stars thought to be coeval

synchronous implies exact correspondence in time and especially in periodic intervals.

synchronous timepieces

simultaneous implies correspondence in a moment of time.

the two shots were simultaneous

coincident is applied to events and may be used in order to avoid implication of causal relationship.

the end of World War II was coincident with a great vintage year

Examples of contemporaneous in a Sentence

the contemporaneous publication of the two articles

contemporaneous accounts of the battle from officers on both sides

Recent Examples on the Web

However, contemporaneous news reports from 1989 indicate that Walz was in Nebraska, his home state, as the massacre unfolded, Minnesota Public Radio reported this week. —Gabe Kaminsky, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 1 Oct. 2024

The process started with great optimism, based on contemporaneous notes taken by the Plastic Pollution Coalition, one of the large nonprofit groups involved in and closely monitoring the treaty talks. —Dylan Scott, Vox, 24 Sep. 2024

The wavy, sinuous forms that appear in O’Keeffe’s contemporaneous abstractions are confined only to the sky here, where rows of clouds threaten to cover the moon. —Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 12 Sep. 2024

In a statistical analysis of nearly two million State Department cables sent in the 1970s, for instance, one recent study demonstrated that U.S. diplomats were often bad at estimating the historical importance of contemporaneous events. —J. Peter Scoblic, Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2020

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin contemporāneus, from Latin con- con- + tempor-, tempus "time" + -āneus, compound suffix formed from -ānus -an entry 2 + -eus -eous — more at -eous

Note: The Latin word contemporāneus occurs as a noun in the sense "contemporary" in a chapter heading of Aulus Gellius's Noctes Atticae (19.14), though these headings are most likely a post-classical interpolation. The word is otherwise not attested before the early Middle Ages.

First Known Use

circa 1656, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

contemporaneous

adjective

con·​tem·​po·​ra·​ne·​ous kən-ˌtem-pə-ˈrā-nē-əs 

: existing, occurring, or beginning during the same time

contemporaneously adverb

contemporaneousness noun