Contemporize
verb
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To bring up to date; often specifically to set a historical narrative in a modern context
"In the few instances where the initial description is couched in the past tense, immediate reversal occurs and the scene is contemporized by the listener."
- 2 arrange or represent events so that they co-occur wordnet
- 3 To modify, repackage, or present a well-known or traditional product or brand in a way that appeals to contemporary consumers.
"Oscar Mayer tapped him to try to find some way to reposition bologna and other troubled meats that were declining in popularity and sales...when Drane began working on the project, his orders were to “figure out how to contemporize what we’ve got.”"
- 4 happen at the same time wordnet
Example
More examples"In the few instances where the initial description is couched in the past tense, immediate reversal occurs and the scene is contemporized by the listener."
Etymology
From contemporary + -ize.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.