Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "contemporary" []

  • Belonging to the same period of time: a fact documented by two contemporary sources. (adjective)
  • Of about the same age. (adjective)
  • Current; modern: contemporary trends in design. (adjective)
  • One of the same time or age: Shelley and Keats were contemporaries. (noun)
  • A person of the present age. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "contemporary" in a sentence
  • "The term contemporary formation is here taken in the sense attached to it by geologists, in speaking of beds of quartz in clay-slate, granular limestone in mica-slate or feldspar in gneiss."
  • "This year, ABT invoked the word "contemporary" to describe the season's works, which included dances from 1979 to this year."
  • "In our not-so-distant past, the word "contemporary" simply meant, "occurring in the present.""