contemporaneous

1 of 2

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

contemporaneousness

2 of 2

noun

con·​tem·​po·​ra·​ne·​ous·​ness

kən-¦tem-pə-¦rā-nē-əs-nəs, 

(ˈ)kän-, 

-nyəs-

plural -es

: contemporaneity

Synonyms of contemporaneous

Adjective

• concurrent
• synchronous
• synchronic
• coincident
• contemporary
• simultaneous
• coincidental

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

Adjective

the contemporaneous publication of the two articles

contemporaneous accounts of the battle from officers on both sides

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Fewer than forty contemporaneous documents referring to Vermeer have been discovered across various archives, which scholars have used to sketch out the thin shape of a life. — Clare Bucknell, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026

When a writer has obviously taken contemporaneous notes, the stories read as if they’ve been written from the inside instead of the outside, and the observations are original and immediate. — Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 11 June 2026

In parallel with the team’s fieldwork, archaeologists are studying contemporaneous Chinese descriptions of the the region, Menshikov added. — Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 8 June 2026

Feaster says he was impressed by several contemporaneous accounts of Georg Theodor Jacob Müller’s machine, including a testimonial by physicist Johann Tobias Mayer. — Ron Cowen, Scientific American, 3 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

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 tempo

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

Adjective

circa 1656, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for contemporaneous

• extemporaneous
• intracutaneous
• mucocutaneous
• extraneous
• spontaneous
• lanius
• miscellaneous
• percutaneous
• simultaneous
• subcutaneous
• subterraneous
• transcutaneous

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