contingency

American  

[kuhn-tin-juhn-see] / kənˈtɪn dʒən si /

noun

plural

contingencies

1. dependence on chance or on the fulfillment of a condition; uncertainty; fortuitousness.

   Nothing was left to contingency.

2. a contingent event; a chance, accident, or possibility conditional on something uncertain.

   He was prepared for every contingency.

   Synonyms:

   predicament, likelihood, emergency

3. something incidental to a thing.

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contingency British  

/ kənˈtɪndʒənsɪ /

noun

1. 1. a possible but not very likely future event or condition; eventuality

   2. ( as modifier )

      a contingency plan

2. something dependent on a possible future event

3. a fact, event, etc, incidental to or dependent on something else

4. 1. modification of the meaning of a main clause by use of a bound clause introduced by a binder such as if, when, though, or since Compare adding

   2. ( as modifier )

      a contingency clause

5. logic

   1. the state of being contingent

   2. a contingent statement

6. dependence on chance; uncertainty

7. statistics

   1. the degree of association between theoretical and observed common frequencies of two graded or classified variables. It is measured by the chi-square test

   2. ( as modifier )

      a contingency table

      the contingency coefficient

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Etymology

Origin of contingency

First recorded in 1555–65; conting(ent) + -ency

Example Sentences

Beijing also intended to show Tokyo what kind of trouble a Taiwan contingency could cause, said James Yifan Chen, who teaches diplomacy and foreign policy at Taiwan’s Tamkang University.

From The Wall Street Journal

NI Water said they have "robust contingency planning arrangements in place and will seek to minimise the impact of any industrial action taken".

From BBC

The BLS’s choice to carry forward previous shelter costs was in line with longstanding contingency plans for missing data, the agency said.

From The Wall Street Journal

For now, he and his family can remain in Turkey, but he's already making contingency plans in case government policy changes.

From BBC

According to testimony from Rishe Khalili, firefighters’ use of bulldozers to put a contingency line around that fire ended up harming astragalus.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• emergency
• eventuality
• exigency
• probability