- a person who lives or lived at the same time as somebody else, especially somebody who is about the same age
- She and I were contemporaries at college.
- He was a contemporary of Freud and may have known him.
- Give or take a few years, they are contemporaries.
Word Originmid 17th cent.: from medieval Latin contemporarius, from con- ‘together with’ + tempus, tempor- ‘time’ (on the pattern of Latin contemporaneus and late Latin contemporalis).Want to learn more?
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contemporary