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 of contemporaneous

• 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

the contemporaneous publication of the two articles

contemporaneous accounts of the battle from officers on both sides

Recent Examples on the Web

Other contemporaneous evidence suggests Doe was already struggling with the encounter. — Michael Dorgan, FOXNews.com, 2 Oct. 2026

Eleanor envisioned an observational film in the vein of Frederick Wiseman, and the doc is narrated by actress Diane Lane, a longtime Coppola family collaborator, who reads Eleanor’s contemporaneous diary entries from twenty years ago. — Marlow Stern, Variety, 30 Sep. 2026

However, its coordinates agree surprisingly well with a contemporaneous description by Ptolemy of a settlement called Claudivium. — Anne Doran, ARTnews.com, 29 Sep. 2026

One of my hobbies is to read first-party, contemporaneous accounts of previous technological revolutions. — Fortune Editors, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2026

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 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

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