con·tin·gent
(kən-tĭńjənt)
[Middle English, from Latin contingēns, contingent- present participle of contingere, to touch; see contact.]
adjective
- Liable to occur but not with certainty; possible: “All salaries are reckoned on contingent as well as on actual services” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
- Dependent on conditions or occurrences not yet established; conditional: arms sales contingent on the approval of Congress. See synonyms at dependent
- Happening by chance or accident; fortuitous. See synonyms at accidental
- Logic True only under certain conditions; not necessarily or universally true: a contingent proposition.
noun
- An event or condition that is likely but not inevitable.
- A share or quota, as of troops, contributed to a general effort.
- A representative group forming part of an assemblage.
derivatives
- con·tińgent·ly
- adverb
