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coeval

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noun

as in contemporary
a person who lives at the same time or is about the same age as another somewhat surprisingly, Saint Patrick and Attila the Hun were coevals

Synonyms & Similar Words

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective coeval differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of coeval are coincident, contemporaneous, contemporary, simultaneous, and synchronous. While all these words mean "existing or occurring at the same time," coeval refers usually to periods, ages, eras, eons.

two stars thought to be coeval

In what contexts can coincident take the place of coeval?

While the synonyms coincident and coeval are close in meaning, 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

When can contemporaneous be used instead of coeval?

The synonyms contemporaneous and coeval are sometimes interchangeable, but contemporaneous is more often applied to events than to people.

contemporaneous accounts of the kidnapping

When could contemporary be used to replace coeval?

The meanings of contemporary and coeval largely overlap; however, contemporary is likely to apply to people and what relates to them.

Abraham Lincoln was contemporary with Charles Darwin

When would simultaneous be a good substitute for coeval?

In some situations, the words simultaneous and coeval are roughly equivalent. However, simultaneous implies correspondence in a moment of time.

the two shots were simultaneous

Where would synchronous be a reasonable alternative to coeval?

The words synchronous and coeval can be used in similar contexts, but synchronous implies exact correspondence in time and especially in periodic intervals.

synchronous timepieces

Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of coeval
Adjective
Their personalities and their pain are made almost exactly coeval, with little telling slippage between. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 20 Nov. 2023 Her letters to Bradley demonstrate that the idea was coeval with her wish to be a poet and her discovery of romantic feeling for girls, and that it was fully formed as early as her adolescence. Langdon Hammer, The New York Review of Books, 25 Feb. 2020 Tribalism and clannishness are coeval with human social life. Stephen Holmes, The New York Review of Books, 17 Jan. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coeval
Adjective
  • What? Turns out Paris’s and Ellie’s timelines are actually not concurrent.
    Laura Bradley, Vulture, 5 Nov. 2024
  • At the top of that list would have been Edmund Wilson, whose reviews ran concurrent with hers in The New Republic.
    Sloane Crosley, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2024
Noun
  • The accomplished jazz musician and arranger distinguished himself from his contemporaries with his willingness to span genres, jumping between R&B, pop, jazz, and rap in the 1980s alone.
    Evan Minsker, Pitchfork, 4 Nov. 2024
  • Like his emo-country contemporaries, his songs caught on with a young, social-media-savvy demographic.
    Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 2 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • The difference between synchronous between asynchronous learning A synchronous learning day means that the virtual learning still has a live element to it.
    Katie Wiseman, The Indianapolis Star, 19 Jan. 2024
  • Online students can take advantage of synchronous opportunities to build community with their instructors and peers.
    Doug Wintemute, Forbes, 29 Sep. 2024
Adjective
  • With a lockable synchronic-tilt mechanism and special Z-Shape design, the Kaiser 2 can accommodate a weight up to 180kg, quite a bit more than normal mechanisms on office chairs and the back can be reclined to an angle of 160 degrees which can be locked when not in rocking mode.
    Mark Sparrow, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2021
  • For his last runway collection, unveiled in September, Michele constructed a parallel universe of side-by-side shows separated by a wall that when lifted revealed twins in identical looks in synchronic stride.
    Colleen Barry, Fortune, 24 Nov. 2022
Adjective
  • The timing of these changes were roughly coincident with clarification of Information Blocking rules and Epic’s introduction of its own competing product.
    Seth Joseph, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024
  • Another suggestion is that there were two more or less coincident eruptions, one each in northern and southern hemispheres.
    Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 26 July 2011
Adjective
  • The debate over executive power, as recorded in contemporaneous journals, letters and articles, is difficult to follow, like watching a soccer match played with three balls and no referees.
    Joseph J. Ellis, The Mercury News, 31 Oct. 2024
  • Martinique’s contemporaneous Négritude movement made fruitful use of Surrealism alongside Marxism, colonial resistance, and an embrace of Blackness.
    Jack Denton, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2024

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Thesaurus Entries Near coeval

Cite this Entry

“Coeval.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coeval. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

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