contemporaneous

adjective

con·​tem·​po·​ra·​ne·​ous kən-ˌtem-pə-ˈrā-nē-əs How to pronounce contemporaneous (audio)
: existing, occurring, or originating during the same time
social and political events that were contemporaneous with each other
contemporaneously adverb
contemporaneousness noun
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 Nowhere in the paper’s archives are contemporaneous accounts about how Ben’s, and its gutsy owners, had survived the riots that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, and the many tumultuous years after. Tim Carman, Washington Post, 15 Feb. 2024 Though no contemporaneous account of that meeting appears to exist, evidence suggests that Smalls helped persuade Lincoln to arm Black men in the Union Army. Jonathan W. White, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Feb. 2024 The illustration Radburn found stands out in that it is described in a contemporaneous account and appears to reference not just British nobility but the sovereign in particular. Karla Adam, Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2023 The Colorado court ignored the contemporaneous evidence of how Congress construed its own amendment. The Editors, National Review, 20 Dec. 2023 The accounts were specific, revolting and, in some cases, bolstered by medical records and other contemporaneous evidence. Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times, 13 Nov. 2023 Shapley turned over contemporaneous notes to Congress that appear to show the prosecutors were not interested in investigating potential campaign finance violations against Hunter. Catherine Herridge, CBS News, 11 Jan. 2024 The contemporaneous migrations of Black people from the South to the North, known as the Great Migration, and the exodus of agricultural workers from the Dust Bowl to California are well known in scholarship and literature, but this larger transappalachian movement has been mostly ignored. Max Fraser, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023 For this story, ProPublica reviewed hundreds of contemporaneous notes, letters and other memos archived at multiple universities. Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 13 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contemporaneous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of contemporaneous was circa 1656

Dictionary Entries Near contemporaneous

Cite this Entry

“Contemporaneous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contemporaneous. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

contemporaneous

adjective
con·​tem·​po·​ra·​ne·​ous kən-ˌtem-pə-ˈrā-nē-əs How to pronounce contemporaneous (audio)
: existing, occurring, or beginning during the same time
contemporaneously adverb
contemporaneousness noun

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