What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Contemporary vs Zeitgeisty - What's the difference?

contemporary | zeitgeisty |

As adjectives the difference between contemporary and zeitgeisty

is that contemporary is from the same time period, coexistent in time while zeitgeisty is (informal) conforming to the zeitgeist, contemporary, trendy, modern.

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

    * * *

    zeitgeisty

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (informal) Conforming to the zeitgeist, contemporary, trendy, modern
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=2001 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Dr. Peter Knight , title=Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to 'The X-Files , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Routledge , isbn=9780415189781 , page=183 , passage=Behind this zeitgeisty observation, however, lies the more convincing … }}
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=2008 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author= , title=2009 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market , chapter= citation , genre=Language and Arts , publisher=F+W Media , isbn=9781582975436 , page= , passage=This is the major problem of the new project that I am working on — it is so zeitgeisty that each day that passes that it is not yet fully written makes it feel more and more dated. }}
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=2010 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=David Browne , title=Goodbye 20th Century , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=ReadHowYouWant , isbn=9781458778871 , page=348 , passage="Sonic Youth are always zeitgeisty ,” says Cafritz, “so it sounded really appealing at that moment. }}
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=2011 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Kim Newman , title=Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Bloomsbury , isbn=9781408805039 , page=173 , passage=... near future corporate wars and 'the realist underground' and was eclipsed by the zeitgeistier The Matrix (1999). }}
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=2010 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Gideon Haigh , title=The Office: A Hardworking History , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Miegunyah Press , isbn=9780522855562 , page=viii , passage=Social trendspotters nodded as that zeitgeistiest of journalists, The New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell, called for … }}

    Usage notes

    Some mistakenly believe that since the root is from the German Zeitgeist (English zeitgeist) that it should be capitalized. This is wrong. Zeitgeisty is an adjective and, aside from the beginning of a sentence or in a title, it should not be capitalized.

    Synonyms

    * contemporary * modern * period * trendy * up to date