Applied to a process or event (e.g. recrystallization of metamorphic rock, or the emplacement of plutons) which occurs at the same time as deformation. Synorogenic sediments need not show contemporaneous deformation, though the sedimentation will be the result of deformation and uplift in the orogenic belt. Many authors use ‘synkinematic’, ‘syntectonic’, and ‘synorogenic’ interchangeably; others restrict ‘synkinematic’ to rocks showing evidence of deformation which happened simultaneously with their formation (e.g. rotated porphyroblasts in a metamorphic rock). ‘Synorogenic’ is often restricted to events or processes which happen simultaneously with a major phase in orogeny.