The contemporary meaning has two sides: it can describe something that belongs to the present time, like contemporary music or contemporary furniture, or it can describe people and things that existed during the same period as each other, even long ago. Two poets born in the same decade of the 1700s were contemporaries.
That double use trips up readers of history books and art guides. Below is a clear contemporary definition for each sense, the noun form, examples, and the often blurry line between contemporary and modern.
Entry at a glance
Meaning
(1) Of the present day; (2) living or occurring in the same periodPart of speech
Adjective; also a noun (a contemporary, her contemporaries)Pronunciation
kun-TEM-puh-rer-ee (British: kun-TEM-pruh-ree)Word forms
contemporaries (plural noun), contemporaneous (formal adjective), contemporaneouslyOrigin
Medieval Latin contemporarius: com- (together) + tempus (time); English from the 1630sClose words
current, present-day, modern, coeval (formal)Opposite
old-fashioned, historical, vintage, antique
Contemporary meaning, sense by sense
- Present-day. Happening, made or popular now. The gallery shows contemporary sculpture by artists still working today.
- Of the same time as another thing. Existing in the same period, whether now or in the past. A contemporary report of the earthquake is one written when the earthquake happened, not one written today.
- Noun: a person of the same era or age. She and I were contemporaries at college means you studied there at the same time.
So when you define contemporary, always ask: contemporary with what? The second sense is older. The present-day meaning, used for art and literature, is recorded from the early 1800s and is now the more common one in everyday speech.
Contemporary in context
- The hotel mixes contemporary design with old carved doors from the original building.
- Historians compared the diary with contemporary newspaper accounts of the flood.
- He was a contemporary of my grandfather, and they played cricket for the same club.
- Our literature course ends with a unit on contemporary fiction from around the world.
- Contemporary dance students learn floor work, improvisation and release technique.
You visit a museum and see two signs. One says Contemporary Art, Floor 3. Another, beside a medieval manuscript, says the drawings in the margin are contemporary with the text.
The first means art of our own time. The second means the drawings were made in the same period as the writing, centuries ago.
Contemporary vs modern
In daily speech the two often overlap: a contemporary kitchen and a modern kitchen sound much the same. In art and design, though, they can name different periods or styles:
| Term | Usual sense in art and design |
|---|---|
| modern | a historical movement, often placed from the late 1800s to around the 1960s or 1970s; clean lines and new materials |
| contemporary | work being made now or in recent decades; the style keeps changing with the times |
Museums and designers do not draw the line in exactly the same place, so treat these dates as a rough guide. A chair from the middle of the last century is modern in the design sense, even though it is no longer contemporary.
Contemporary, contemporaneous and simultaneous
- Contemporaneous is a formal word meaning existing or happening at the same time. Lawyers speak of contemporaneous notes, written at the time of an event.
- Simultaneous means happening at exactly the same moment, not just in the same era.
- Contemporary covers both a shared period and the present day.
A strict definition of contemporary therefore includes both time frames. To avoid confusion in historical writing, some editors prefer contemporaneous or of the time when they mean the past, and save contemporary for today.
Origin of the word
Contemporary comes from Medieval Latin contemporarius, made from com-, together, and temporarius, of time, from tempus, time. It reached English in the 1630s, first meaning living or existing at the same time. The same root appears in temporary, tempo and temporal.
Galleries, classrooms and showrooms
The word turns up on gallery signs, college course titles, furniture websites, music charts and in history writing. In interior design, contemporary style usually means neutral colours, open spaces and simple forms that follow current taste. In dance it names a style that blends ballet, modern dance and freer movement. Pages on aesthetic, culture and nostalgia look at style and time from other angles, and the everyday vocabulary hub has plenty more.
Frequently asked questions
What does contemporary mean in simple words?
Of today, or of the same time as something else. Contemporary music is music of our time; two writers who lived in the same years were contemporaries.
Is contemporary the same as modern?
In everyday talk they are close. In art and design, modern often refers to a past movement, while contemporary means work of the present or recent decades.
What does it mean to be someone's contemporary?
It means you lived, studied or worked during the same period. It often suggests a similar age or stage of life, such as classmates or colleagues who started together.
How do you pronounce contemporary?
In American English say kun-TEM-puh-rer-ee; the weight falls on TEM. British speakers often shorten it to kun-TEM-pruh-ree.
What is contemporary art?
Contemporary art is art made by living artists or in recent decades. It includes painting and sculpture but also video, installations and performance.
Can I say contemporary for something in the past?
Yes, if you mean it existed at the same time as something else in that past. A contemporary portrait of a ruler was painted during the ruler's life. Make the meaning clear from context.