adjective / noun

contemporary

kuhn-TEM-puh-rair-ee/kənˈtempəreri/

Existing within the same period of time.

This contemporary house has broad glass walls and rooftop solar panels.

A clearly present-day house with a flat roof, broad glass walls, rooftop solar panels, and an electric car plugged into a compact wall-mounted charger, illustrating the present-day branch of the frozen meaning.

Etymology

conLatinwith, together

+temporLatintime, season

+aryLatinpertaining to

Com- and tempus give the idea of being together in time: belonging to the same period. Applied to things belonging to our own period, this also yields the meaning “modern” or “present-day.”

In context

Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art106:51

the conditions have changed in the present. We're not looking at the same kind of landscape so one question for me is where does that radical political imagination fit with contemporary debates around decolonization

British Art and Natural Forces: Decolonial Agencies

More examples

The museum displays letters contemporary with the Civil War.
Shakespeare and his contemporary Marlowe wrote plays for London audiences.
Her contemporaries admire her bold approach to painting.

Forms

contemporary · contemporaries

Similar words

modern: Refers specifically to the present or relatively recent times.
contemporaneous: Means existing in the same period, without implying present-day relevance.