contingent

From Old French contingent, from Medieval Latin contingens (“possible, contingent”), present participle of contingere (“to touch, meet, attain to, happen”), from com- (“together”) + tangere (“to touch”).

• IPA^(key): /kənˈtɪn.d͡ʒənt/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧tin‧gent

contingent (plural contingents)

1. An event which may or may not happen; that which is unforeseen, undetermined, or dependent on something future.

   Synonym: contingency

2. That which falls to one in a division or apportionment among a number; a suitable share.

   Synonym: proportion

3. (military) A quota of troops.
   • 2014, Ian Black, "Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian, 27 November 2014:

     Arrests and prosecutions intensified after Isis captured Mosul in June, but the groundwork had been laid by an earlier amendment to Jordan’s anti-terrorism law. It is estimated that 2,000 Jordanians have fought and 250 of them have died in Syria – making them the third largest Arab contingent in Isis after Saudi Arabians and Tunisians.

contingent (comparative more contingent, superlative most contingent)

1. Possible or liable, but not certain to occur.

   Synonyms: incidental, casual

   Antonyms: certain, inevitable, necessary, impossible

2. (with upon or on) Dependent on something that is undetermined or unknown, that may or may not occur.

   Synonyms: conditional; see also Thesaurus:conditional

   The success of his undertaking is contingent upon events which he cannot control.

   a contingent estate

   • 1989, Thurgood Marshall, “Dissenting Opinion”, in Watkins v. Murray‎:

     The imposition of the death penalty should not be contingent on a particular jury's unguided understanding of a legal term of art.

3. Not logically necessarily true or false.
4. Temporary.

   contingent labor

   contingent worker

• contingentism
• contingentness
• contingent charge
• contingent remainder

• contact
• contingence
• contingency
• contingent claim

• contingent in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• contingent in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• contingent at OneLook Dictionary Search

• contenting

From Latin contingēns.

contingent (masculine and feminine plural contingents)

1. contingent

contingent m (plural contingents)

1. contingent

• contingència

• “contingent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “contingent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “contingent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “contingent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin contingēns.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.tɛ̃.ʒɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

contingent (feminine contingente, masculine plural contingents, feminine plural contingentes)

1. contingent

• contingence

contingent m (plural contingents)

1. quota
2. contingent

• “contingent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

contingent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of contingō

From French contingent, from Latin contingens.

contingent m or n (feminine singular contingentă, masculine plural contingenți, feminine and neuter plural contingente)

1. contingent