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Contemporary vs Immediate - What's the difference?

contemporary | immediate |

As adjectives the difference between contemporary and immediate

is that contemporary is from the same time period, coexistent in time while immediate is happening right away, instantly, with no delay.

As a noun contemporary

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

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

    * * *

    immediate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Happening right away, instantly, with no delay.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Assemble we immediate council.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=19 citation , passage=When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.}}
  • Very close; direct or adjacent.
  • * Shakespeare
    • You are the most immediate to our throne.
  • Manifestly true; requiring no argument.
  • embedded as part of the instruction itself, rather than stored elsewhere (such as a register or memory location)

    • Related terms

    * immediacy

    Derived terms

    * immediately

    Anagrams

    * ----