Word of the Day Archive
Friday March 9, 2007
coterminous \koh-TUR-muh-nuhs\ , adjective:
1. Having the same or coincident boundaries.
2. Having the same scope, range of meaning, duration.
In a democracy the interests of the people are, or at least should be, coterminous with those of the state.
-- Ronald Steel, "The Domestic Core of Foreign Policy", The Atlantic, June 1995
That kind of sociological prejudice rests on a false supposition, . . . that "social" and "governmental" are coterminous, and that anyone who is against governmental action is therefore essentially "atomistic."
-- Brian Doherty, "Cybersilly", Reason, August/September 2000
The collapse of the swing phenomenon was coterminous with the emergence of bebop.
-- David Nasaw, "Big-Band Theory", New York Times, November 26, 2000
Coterminous is from Latin conterminus, from com-, "together; with" + terminus, "boundary."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for coterminous
