contingent.
An event which may or may not happen; that which is unforeseen, undetermined, or dependent on something in the future.
Meaning & usage
An event which may or may not happen; that which is unforeseen, undetermined, or dependent on something in the future.
That which falls to one in a division or apportionment among a number; a suitable share.
A quota of troops.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English, from Old French contingent (whence con- and -ent), from Medieval Latin contingens (“possible, contingent”), present participle of contingere (“to touch, meet, attain to, happen”), from com- (“together”) + tangere (“to touch”).
Possible or liable, but not certain, to occur.
Dependent on something that is undetermined or unknown, that may or may not occur.
The success of his undertaking is contingent upon events which he cannot control.
a contingent estate
Not logically necessarily true or false.
Temporary.
contingent labor
contingent worker
Where this word comes from
From Middle English, from Old French contingent (whence con- and -ent), from Medieval Latin contingens (“possible, contingent”), present participle of contingere (“to touch, meet, attain to, happen”), from com- (“together”) + tangere (“to touch”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.