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PlainSpell

contemporary

con·tem·po·ra·ry/kənˈtɛm.pəˌɹɛɹ.i/adjective, noun

contemporary is spelled C-O-N-T-E-M-P-O-R-A-R-Y, 5 syllables: con·tem·po·ra·ry. The wrong spelling people search most is contempory: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 227 of all searches for the word. Contemporary is an adjective meaning “From the same time period, coexistent in time; contemporaneous”.

How many letters and syllables are in contemporary?

Letters12: C-O-N-T-E-M-P-O-R-A-R-Y
Syllables5: con·tem·po·ra·ry
In writing31 times per million words; the 3,052nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched2; the most searched, contempory, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell contemporary?

Contemporary is spelled C-O-N-T-E-M-P-O-R-A-R-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 161 of the searches for contemporary in either form.

contemporarythe right spelling16,010 searches a month
contemporya missing r, a missing a70 searches a month
contempoarya missing r30 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is contemporary?

Contemporary appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce contemporary?

  • UK /kənˈtɛm.p(ə.)ɹə.ɹi/
  • UK /kənˈtɛm.p(ə.)ɹi/
  • US /kənˈtɛm.pəˌɹɛɹ.i/

Contemporary has 5 syllables, split con·tem·po·ra·ry in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-contemporary.oga, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-contemporary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of contemporary

  • more contemporary comparative
  • most contemporary superlative
  • contemporaries plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does contemporary mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    From the same time period, coexistent in time; contemporaneous.

  2. 2

    Modern, of the present age (shorthand for ‘contemporary with the present’).

noun

  1. 1

    Someone or something belonging to the same time period (as someone or something else)

    Cervantes was a contemporary of Shakespeare.

  2. 2

    Something existing at the same time.

  3. 3

    datedA rival newspaper or magazine.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate contemporary?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of contemporary: contemp, contemp..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Contemporary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcontemporain (from the same time period)
Germanzeitgenössisch (from the same time period), modern, zeitnah (modern), Zeitgenosse, Zeitgenossin (someone living at the same time)
Portuguesecontemporâneo (from the same time period), moderno (modern)
Spanishcontemporario, coetáneo (from the same time period), contemporáneo (modern)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does contemporary come from?

From Medieval Latin contemporārius, from Latin con- (“with, together”) + temporārius, an adjective derived from tempus (“time”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after contemporary