contemporary

Everyday

1. Contemporary means modern, belonging to the present time: «contemporary art». tree →
2. Contemporary means existing or happening at the same time as something else: «a contemporary report of the battle». tree →
3. A contemporary is a person who lived at the same time as someone else. tree →

In the lessons

In art and music lessons «contemporary» means modern, of today. In history, contemporary sources were written at the time of the events and are useful evidence. Phrases: contemporary art, contemporary dance, contemporary of.

Examples

• We visited a gallery of contemporary art. tree →
• Shakespeare was a contemporary of Queen Elizabeth the First. tree →
• A contemporary account describes the great fire. tree →
• She loves contemporary dance. tree →
• The house has a contemporary design. tree →
• His contemporaries thought his ideas were crazy. tree →
• And he spoke of his works, and of his warlike deeds, which his contemporaries had known, but which had not been sung, because there was no singer among his companions. tree →

Note

Two meanings that can clash: «modern» and «of the same time». In history, a contemporary source is one from the time itself, not from today. Spelling: con-tem-po-rar-y.