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Coeval comes to English from the Latin word coaevus, meaning "of the same age." Coaevus was formed by combining the co- prefix ("in or to the same degree") with Latin aevum ("age" or "lifetime"). The root aevum is also a base in such temporal words as longevity, medieval, and primeval. Although coeval can technically describe any two or more entities that coexist, it is most typically used to refer to things that have existed together for a very long time (such as galaxies) or that were concurrent with each other in the distant past (parallel historical periods of ancient civilizations, for example).
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Examples of coeval in a Sentence
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
Tribalism and clannishness are coeval with human social life.
—Stephen Holmes, The New York Review of Books, 17 Jan. 2019
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Cite this Entry
“Coeval.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coeval. Accessed 29 Nov. 2024.
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