adjective
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touching along the side or boundary; in contact
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physically adjacent; neighbouring
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preceding or following in time
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of contiguous
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin contiguus “touching, bordering upon,“ equivalent to prefix con- “with, together” + tig- (variant stem of -tingere, combining form of tangere “to touch”) + -uus adjective suffix; see con-, tangent, contingent, contact; cf. -ous, continuous
Compare meaning
How does contiguous compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Use the adjective contiguous when you want to describe one thing touching another thing, or next to it but not actually touching. Things that are contiguous are near or next to but not actually touching and yet they are also defined as "touching, sharing a border." You can use this adjective to describe people or things related to and nearby others. It comes from the Latin word contiguus, which means pretty much the same thing, "bordering upon." Because the word has two meanings that are very similar but not always the same it can be a bit confusing. This is an example of what's called "semantic ambiguity," when something can mean more than one thing or a word or phrase is not precise.
Vocabulary lists containing contiguous
The Crucible
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Common Senses: Tact, Tang ("Touch")
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The United States
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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.
The ships tend to stay outside the 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone Taipei claims, but not always.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Scientists found the parasite, known as Echinococcus multilocularis, in local coyotes, marking the first time it has been identified in a wild host along the contiguous U.S.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
But even taken all together, do they constitute an existential threat to the contiguous United States or our interests abroad?
From Slate ● Apr. 21, 2026
California is home to roughly 60,000 black bears, the highest population estimate for anywhere in the contiguous U.S., but attacks are rare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2026
The series of contiguous physical events has rendered the child’s body so different from the one I glance down on at this moment; the very atoms that composed her body no longer compose mine.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
