Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Originating or existing during the same period; lasting through the same era.
  • noun One of the same era or period; a contemporary.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of the same age; having lived for an equal period.
  • Existing from the same point of time; coincident in duration: followed by with, sometimes by to.
  • Coincident in time; contemporary; synchronous: followed by with.
  • Synonyms Coeval, Contemporaneous. Coeval is more commonly applied to things, contemporaneous to persons; but the distinction is not a rigid one.
  • noun One of the same age or period; a contemporary in age or active existence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of the same age; existing during the same period of time, especially time long and remote; -- usually followed by with.
  • noun One of the same age; a contemporary.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of the same age; contemporary.
  • noun Something of the same era or age.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of the same period
  • noun a person of nearly the same age as another

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Late Latin coaevus : co-, co- + aevum, age; see aiw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Late Latin coævus, from Latin: com- ("equal") in combination with aevum ("age").

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Examples

  • (p. 75); the chaos from which its world is created is powerful and essential to the creative process: “infinite darkness ... abyss ... bottomless depth” (p. 24) recall the coeval chaos of pagan mythology as well as the materia prima of alchemy (Jung, 1953, 1963).

    HERMETICISM BLOSSOM FEINSTEIN 1968

  • This scene is more delightful for the male tree than arein the poem's very last linestheir own reflections for the "coeval" trees in the sheltered vale.

    Wordsworth's 'The Haunted Tree' and the Sexual Politics of Landscape 2001

  • War is coeval with human civilization and pervasive in human history.

    Our Elite Schools Have Abandoned Military History Peter Berkowitz 2011

  • American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft asserted that weird supernatural horror fiction arose from a fundamental human psychological pattern that is "coeval with the religious feeling and closely related to many aspects of it."

    Dark Awakenings and Cosmic Horror : The Lovecraft News Network 2010

  • At the City of Manchester Stadium, Neville's coeval Patrick Vieira ran amok, scoring twice.

    Forget the obsession with youth, football's future is grey and balding | Harry Pearson 2011

  • Sam Houston, pragmatist, had ordered the Alamo and the coeval dust wallow, San Antonio Breixas, abandoned to Santa Ana's army, which Houston correctly foresaw would overrun the small band of defenders.

    Alamo Rag David Ackley 2011

  • American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft asserted that weird supernatural horror fiction arose from a fundamental human psychological pattern that is "coeval with the religious feeling and closely related to many aspects of it."

    Archive 2010-03-01 2010

  • You could say that Muti is, at the moment, a bigger star than Eschenbach, but the two approximately coeval conductors (Muti turns 70 next summer) have a lot in common.

    Where's the buzz? Anne Midgette 2010

  • Ever since his coeval Jeff Goldberg moved a bit away from the ZOA-Peretz line on Israel\Palestine.

    Matthew Yglesias » Wieseltier vs Sullivan 2010

  • Contributions from fields as diverse as etymology and etymology and as coeval as cosmology and cosmetology will receive big wet kisses.

    Materials sought for Biography of Irish Rockers, "The Naked Rowdies" 2010

Comments

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  • Another what?

    May 30, 2008

  • Another specific person!

    September 17, 2008

  • The pleasure of talking is the inextinguishable passion of woman, coeval with the act of breathing.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 7 ch. 7

    September 30, 2008