Definition of contingent

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con·tin·gent    (kn-tnjnt) KEY 

ADJECTIVE:

1. Liable to occur but not with certainty; possible: "All salaries are reckoned on contingent as well as on actual services" (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
2. Dependent on conditions or occurrences not yet established; conditional: arms sales contingent on the approval of Congress. See Synonyms at dependent.
3. Happening by chance or accident; fortuitous. See Synonyms at accidental.
4. Logic True only under certain conditions; not necessarily or universally true: a contingent proposition.

NOUN:

1. An event or condition that is likely but not inevitable.
2. A share or quota, as of troops, contributed to a general effort.
3. A representative group forming part of an assemblage.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, from Latin contingns, contingent- present participle of contingere, to touch ; see contact

OTHER FORMS:
con·tingent·ly(Adverb)