contiguity
Americannoun
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contiguities
plural
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the state of being contiguous; contact or proximity.
-
a series of things in continuous connection; a continuous mass or extent.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of contiguity
From the Late Latin word contiguitās, dating back to 1635–45. See contiguous, -ity
Explanation
Use the noun contiguity when you're talking about the state of things being right up next to each other, like the contiguity of two countries that share a border. You're most likely to come across the word contiguity in a discussion of geography. For example, you could talk about the contiguity of the United States and its northern neighbor, Canada, or the contiguity of New Hampshire and Vermont. Contiguity shares a root with the more common contiguous, the Latin contingere, which means "to touch upon."
Vocabulary lists containing contiguity
The Scarlet Letter
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The Return of the Native
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The House of the Seven Gables
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Those principles include compactness, contiguity and the preservation of political subdivisions, including cities and counties, and “communities of interest” that have geography, culture or an economic sector in common.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
"They also don't just associate that word with an object based on temporal contiguity without really understanding the meaning of those words, but they activate a memory of an object when they hear its name."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2024
“Since the distance between town and island is slight, we do not think the failure of the legislative plan to achieve literal contiguity a serious demerit,” the judges wrote in 1992.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2023
Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government said the latter move would help "provide Palestinian territorial contiguity" in the West Bank and make it easier for Palestinians to live a normal life.
From BBC ● Mar. 21, 2023
Several nests are made here on the ground, in comparatively close contiguity.
From Wild Life in a Southern County by Richard Jefferies
It lacks physical constraints, but also circumstantial contiguities; all points of passage through it have to be, in some sense, primed.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 1, 2016
At every moment the study of science reveals resemblances of facts and contiguities of facts which must be neglected for the sake of others.
From The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps by Alfred Binet
“Let Pennsylvania see those blossoming fields for herself,” said he, “those boundless contiguities of shade.”
From Red Men and White by Frederic Remington
So that the contiguity of Turks and Armenians has been even more unfortunate than are most contiguities.
From Mystery at Geneva An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings by Dame Rose Macaulay
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
