Contemporary vs Rival - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between contemporary and rival

is that contemporary is from the same time period, coexistent in time while rival is having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.

As nouns the difference between contemporary and rival

is that contemporary is someone or something living at the same time, or of roughly the same age as another while rival is a competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.

As a verb rival is

to oppose or compete with.

contemporary

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

From the same time period, coexistent in time.

* Cowley

A grove born with himself he sees, / And loves his old contemporary trees.

* Strype

This king was contemporary with the greatest monarchs of Europe.

Modern, of the present age.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=Robert L. Dorit , title=Rereading Darwin , volume=100, issue=1, page=23 , magazine= citation , passage=We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.}}

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=May 24 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3 , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Men In Black 3 finagles its way out of this predicament by literally resetting the clock with a time-travel premise that makes Will Smith both a contemporary intergalactic cop in the late 1960s and a stranger to Josh Brolin, who plays the younger version of Smith’s stone-faced future partner, Tommy Lee Jones.}}

Relatively recent

Synonyms

* contemporaneous

Antonyms

* anachronistic: in the wrong time period * archaic

Noun

(contemporaries)

Someone or something living at the same time, or of roughly the same age as another.

''Cervantes was a contemporary of Shakespeare.

''The early mammals inherited the earth by surviving their saurian contemporaries .

Something existing at the same time.

External links

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rival

English

Noun

(en noun)

A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you

Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.

(obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.

* (William Shakespeare)

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Derived terms

* rivalry * archrival

Adjective

(-)

Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.

rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions

* Macaulay

The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.

Verb

To oppose or compete with.

to rival somebody in love

To be equal to or to surpass another.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, […].}}

To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.

* Dryden

to rival thunder in its rapid course

Anagrams

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