contingency plan
Americannoun
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a course of action to be followed if a preferred plan fails or an existing situation changes.
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a plan or procedure that will take effect if an emergency occurs; emergency plan.
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.
There was a contingency plan: Three smaller planes carrying specialized teams later made their way to the remote staging area.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday that "military assets" had been deployed to the Middle East as a contingency plan.
From Barron's • Mar. 5, 2026
You also need a contingency plan if something — God forbid — ever happened to your son and he predeceased you.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 21, 2026
A surveillance aircraft that should have provided critical intelligence on the number of crossings never launched due to poor weather conditions - and there was no contingency plan, the inquiry found.
From BBC • Feb. 5, 2026
“We’ve got a contingency plan for exactly this scenario!”
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
