as in concurrent
existing or occurring at the same period of time
two stars thought to be coeval because they have nearly the same mass and brightness
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in contemporary
a person who lives at the same time or is about the same age as another
somewhat surprisingly, Saint Patrick and Attila the Hun were coevals
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of coeval
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
Their personalities and their pain are made almost exactly coeval, with little telling slippage between.
—
Vinson Cunningham,
The New Yorker,
20 Nov. 2023
Her letters to Bradley demonstrate that the idea was coeval with her wish to be a poet and her discovery of romantic feeling for girls, and that it was fully formed as early as her adolescence.
—
Langdon Hammer,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Feb. 2020
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
20 Oct. 2025
Adjective
One operation persisted fourteen hours, a sort of sci-fi marvel of science, internal engineering, and medical dedication, contra all the coeval dystopian breakdowns of that first COVID year.
—
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
Their personalities and their pain are made almost exactly coeval, with little telling slippage between.
—
Vinson Cunningham,
The New Yorker,
20 Nov. 2023
Her letters to Bradley demonstrate that the idea was coeval with her wish to be a poet and her discovery of romantic feeling for girls, and that it was fully formed as early as her adolescence.
—
Langdon Hammer,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Feb. 2020
Noun
The universal hatred comes from the child star’s coevals, whose curiosity about the occupation is mingled with resentment.
—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
20 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coeval
Adjective
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Missouri would be the only state in the country with such a requirement, often called a concurrent majority, according to a list of state ballot measure rules compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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Separate from the murder case, Murdaugh pleaded guilty to dozens of financial crimes and remains behind bars on concurrent state and federal sentences of 27 and 40 years.
Noun
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For decades, Holt’s contribution was overshadowed by her male contemporaries.
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Private homes are often open for visitors during the annual Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk, which features tours of private homes designed by Wright and his contemporaries.
Adjective
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And every spring, thousands of people throw their names into a lottery for a chance to witness synchronous fireflies in the Smokies.
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Additional features include dual-cylinder synchronous jacking technology designed to improve climbing and tower-extension safety, along with an intelligent digital control system that monitors operations throughout the crane’s lifecycle.
Adjective
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For his last runway collection, unveiled in September, Michele constructed a parallel universe of side-by-side shows separated by a wall that when lifted revealed twins in identical looks in synchronic stride.
Adjective
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Accelerating human evolution coincident with the development of agriculture increased redheadedness and decreased male-pattern baldness.
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In a separate announcement, but with coincident timing, WestJet also announced a stopover plan in Calgary.
Adjective
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Fewer than forty contemporaneous documents referring to Vermeer have been discovered across various archives, which scholars have used to sketch out the thin shape of a life.
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When a writer has obviously taken contemporaneous notes, the stories read as if they’ve been written from the inside instead of the outside, and the observations are original and immediate.
Cite this Entry
“Coeval.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coeval. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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