contingent

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French contingent, from Medieval Latin contingens (“possible, contingent”), present participle of contingere (“to touch, meet, attain to, happen”), from com- (“together”) + tangere (“to touch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈtɪn.d͡ʒənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧tin‧gent

Noun

contingent (plural contingents)

1. An event which may or may not happen; that which is unforeseen, undetermined, or dependent on something future.

   Synonym: contingency

2. That which falls to one in a division or apportionment among a number; a suitable share.

   Synonym: proportion

3. (military) A quota of troops.
   • 2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian:

     Arrests and prosecutions intensified after Isis captured Mosul in June, but the groundwork had been laid by an earlier amendment to Jordan’s anti-terrorism law. It is estimated that 2,000 Jordanians have fought and 250 of them have died in Syria – making them the third largest Arab contingent in Isis after Saudi Arabians and Tunisians.

Translations

an event which may or may not happen — see contingency

that which falls to one in a division or apportionment among a number

• Bulgarian: дял (bg) m (djal), пай (bg) m (paj), контингент (bg) m (kontingent)
• Finnish: osuus (fi)
• German: Anteil (de) m, Kontingent n
• Greek: ενδεχόμενο (el) (endechómeno)
• Portuguese: contingência (pt) f
• Russian: до́ля (ru) f (dólja), пай (ru) m (paj), кво́та (ru) f (kvóta), континге́нт (ru) m (kontingént)
• Spanish: contingente (es) m
• Swedish: andel (sv)
• Turkish: koşullu (tr)

a quota of troops

• Danish: kontingent (da) n
• Finnish: komennuskunta
• German: Kontingent n, Truppenkontingent (de) n
• Irish: meitheal f
• Italian: contingente (it) m, scaglione (it) m, unità (it) f, reparto (it) m, quota (it) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kontingent (no) m

  Nynorsk: kontingent m

• Serbo-Croatian: kontingent (sh) m
• Spanish: contingente (es) m

Adjective

contingent (comparative more contingent, superlative most contingent)

1. Possible or liable, but not certain to occur.

   Synonyms: incidental, casual

   Antonyms: certain, inevitable, necessary, impossible

3. (with upon or on) Dependent on something that is undetermined or unknown, that may or may not occur.

   Synonyms: conditional; see also Thesaurus:conditional

   The success of his undertaking is contingent upon events which he cannot control.

   a contingent estate

   • 1989, Thurgood Marshall, “Dissenting Opinion”, in Watkins v. Murray‎^[1]:

     The imposition of the death penalty should not be contingent on a particular jury's unguided understanding of a legal term of art.

   • 2021, Meghan O'Gieblyn, quoting Hans Blumenberg, chapter 11, in God, Human, Animal, Machine […] , →ISBN:

     This rather narrow theological dispute eventually helped eradicate from Western philosophy the idea of universals—the notion that concepts in the mind correspond to eternal truths, like the Platonic forms—and succeeded in making the world, as Blumenberg puts it, “radically contingent.”

   • 2023 November 5, Sam Jones, “PSOE members back Catalan amnesty plan to secure power in Spain”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Both Catalan parties have said their support for getting the PSOE back into office will be contingent on an amnesty for the hundreds of people who participated in the failed push to secede from Spain in October 2017.

4. Not logically necessarily true or false.
5. Temporary.

   contingent labor

   contingent worker

Derived terms

• contingent charge
• contingentism
• contingently
• contingentness
• contingent remainder
• contingent valuation
• noncontingent

 

Related terms

• contact
• contingence
• contingency
• contingent claim

Translations

possible, liable, incidental, casual

• Bulgarian: случаен (bg) (slučaen), условен (bg) (usloven)
• Dutch: contingent (nl), eventueel (nl)
• Finnish: mahdollinen (fi)
• French: contingent (fr), éventuel (fr), hypothétique (fr)
• German: möglich (de), kontingent (de)
• Italian: contingente (it), casuale (it), transitorio (it), accidentale (it), fortuito (it)
• Japanese: 偶然の (ja) (gūzen no)
• Portuguese: contingente (pt)
• Russian: возмо́жный (ru) (vozmóžnyj), случа́йный (ru) (slučájnyj)
• Spanish: contingente (es)
• Swedish: eventuell (sv), oviss (sv), möjlig (sv)
• Turkish: muhtemel (tr), olası (tr)

dependent on something unknown, that may or may not occur

• Bulgarian: зависещ (bg) (zavisešt), случаен (bg) (slučaen)
• Dutch: contingent (nl)
• Finnish: riippuvainen (fi), ehdollinen (fi)
• German: abhängig (von)
• Persian: وابسته (fa) (vâbaste)
• Portuguese: contingente (pt)
• Swedish: avhängig (sv), villkorlig (sv), beroende (sv)
• Turkish: bağlı (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} eventuala (eo)

Further reading

• “contingent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “contingent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “contingent”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• contenting

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contingentem.

Adjective

contingent m or f (masculine and feminine plural contingents)

1. contingent

Noun

contingent m (plural contingents)

1. contingent

Related terms

• contingència

Further reading

• “contingent” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “contingent”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “contingent” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “contingent” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contingentem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.tɛ̃.ʒɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

contingent (feminine contingente, masculine plural contingents, feminine plural contingentes)

1. contingent

Related terms

• contingence

Noun

contingent m (plural contingents)

1. quota
2. contingent

Further reading

• “contingent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

contingent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of contingō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French contingent, from Latin contingens.

Adjective

contingent m or n (feminine singular contingentă, masculine plural contingenți, feminine and neuter plural contingente)

1. contingent

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	contingent		contingentă		contingenți	contingente
	definite	contingentul		contingenta		contingenții	contingentele
genitive- dative	indefinite	contingent		contingente		contingenți	contingente
	definite	contingentului		contingentei		contingenților	contingentelor