Dictionary

coeval en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /koʊˈi.vəl/ (US)
• /kəʊˈiːvəl/ (UK)

Etymology

From Late Latin coaevus, from Latin con- (“equal”) + aevum (“age”).

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) Of the same age or era; contemporary.
   • Nolan’s other major addition to Homer’s narrative is the repeated reference to threats to 'our civilisation' from 'the sea peoples'—a now debunked 19th-century theory about maritime tribes who were thought to have attacked Egypt around 1200 BCE and to have also been responsible for the roughly coeval collapse of Mycenaean Greek culture. 2026 August 13, Emily Wilson, “An Uncomplicated Man”, in London Review of Books:
   • Anything coeval with that clock will fetch a hefty price!
   • Neither are good looks any criterion; and vulgarity, or at least what a given community terms so, does not necessarily impair certain mysterious characteristics, the fey grace, the elusive, shifty, soul-shattering, insidious charm that separates the nymphet from such coevals of hers as are incomparably more dependent on the spatial world of synchronous phenomena than on that intangible island of entranced time where Lolita plays with her likes. 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC:
   • The Baralaba Coal Measures are coeval with the Bandana Formation.
   • If, however, Orientalists be right in their interpretation of the name of Artaxerxes' queen, Parisatis, as Pari-zadeh (Peri-born), the Peri must be coeval with the religion of Zoroaster. 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 27:
   • The differences between the Sao Khua dinosaur assemblage and the roughly coeval assemblages in China, notably those from the Jehol Group of NE China, have already been noted, and several hypotheses have been put forward, including differences in taphonomic conditions, and the existence of geographical or environmental barriers (Buffetaut et al. 2006; Fernandez et al. 2009). 2009, Eric Buffetaut, Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Ecosystems in SE Asia:
   • The latter [Rollright Stones], which has every signature of Celticism, I conceive to be coeval and perhaps of a class with Stone-henge. 1782, Thomas Warton, The History and Antiquities of Kiddington:

Forms

Deriveds

coevally · coevalist · coevality

Synonyms

contemporary · coeval · coetaneous · contemporaneous · cotemporal · contemporaneous · coincident · cotemporaneous

Translations (32)

fr du même âge (of the same age) · cmn 同时代的 (of the same age) · fa همسال (of the same age) · es coetáneo (of the same era) · gv co-eashagh (of the same age) · pt contemporâneo (of the same age) · cs vrstevník (of the same age) · de gleichaltrig (of the same age) · es etario (of the same age) · is samaldra (of the same age) · is jafnaldra (of the same age) · el συνομήλικος (of the same age) · da samtidig (of the same age) · nmn ǃnāã (of the same age) · pt coetâneo (of the same age) · ru одного́ во́зраста (of the same age) · ga comhaosta (of the same age) · es coevo (of the same era) · fr contemporain (of the same age) · da jævnaldrende (of the same age) · kmr hevjî (of the same age) · ang efneald (of the same age) · es coetáneo (of the same age) · pt coevo (of the same age) · sq njëkohës (of the same age) · bg съвреме́нен (of the same age) · fi samanikäinen (of the same age) · ru рове́сник (of the same age) · ru совреме́нный (of the same age) · gv co-eash (of the same age) · gv uneashagh (of the same age) · cs současník (of the same era)

coeval en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /koʊˈi.vəl/ (US)
• /kəʊˈiːvəl/ (UK)

Etymology

From Late Latin coaevus, from Latin con- (“equal”) + aevum (“age”).

Meanings

1. Something of the same era.
   • The telephone and television are coevals in that film.
2. Somebody of the same age.
   • […] the fey grace, the elusive, shifty, soul-shattering, insidious charm that separates the nymphet from such coevals of hers […] 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 1, page 19:
   • “That's your coeval, Keluga. He's trying to write the entire Roget's as a series of nested, rule-based schematics. Containment, relation, exclusion . . .” “Coeval? I'm thirty-five, Lentz. That guy's a kid.” 1995, Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, page 77:

Forms

Translations (18)

es coetáneo (somebody of the same age) · ru совреме́нница (something of the same era) · gd comhaois (somebody of the same age) · ru рове́сник (somebody of the same age) · es coevo (something of the same era) · gv co-eash (something of the same era) · is samtíðarmaður (something of the same era) · bg връстник (somebody of the same age) · ru совреме́нник (something of the same era) · ru све́рстник (somebody of the same age) · cs vrstevník (somebody of the same age) · is samaldri (something of the same era) · ga comhaois (somebody of the same age) · is jafnaldri (something of the same era) · bg съвреме́нник (something of the same era) · gv co-eash (somebody of the same age) · el σύγχρονος (something of the same era) · bg съвреме́нница (something of the same era)