contingency
dependence on chance or on the fulfillment of a condition; uncertainty; fortuitousness: Nothing was left to contingency.
a contingent event; a chance, accident, or possibility conditional on something uncertain: He was prepared for every contingency.
something incidental to a thing.
Origin of contingency
1Other words for contingency
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use contingency in a sentence
Here, as elsewhere, Berg focuses tightly on contingencies but underrates the contexts which give them meaning.
A Noble Failure: Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency Considered | Michael Kazin | September 8, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTWell, I suppose they have to make plans for all contingencies.
Yet it is one of the contingencies that needs to be strongly considered, if it is plausible at all.
These books follow the war in all its uncertainties and accidents and contingencies.
The Hinge of War: Michael Gorra on the Civil War’s Turning Point | Michael Gorra | May 13, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIt is natural to assume that only military people fully understand the contingencies.
How and Why the "Nuclear Umbrella" Argument Falls Apart | Bernard Avishai | August 20, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Max Bray arranged all future matters to his entire satisfaction, but again there were contingencies that he could not foresee.
By Birth a Lady | George Manville FennHence to give a margin of safety to cover contingencies not calculable, an excess of material must be provided.
Money was necessary to pay expenses of transportation and for other contingencies as they might arise.
The Titanic was efficiently designed and constructed to meet the contingencies which she was intended to meet.
Loss of the Steamship 'Titanic' | British GovernmentToo many chances are against the climbers; too many contingencies may turn against them.
Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 | Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury
British Dictionary definitions for contingency
/ (kənˈtɪndʒənsɪ) /
a possible but not very likely future event or condition; eventuality
(as modifier): a contingency plan
something dependent on a possible future event
a fact, event, etc, incidental to or dependent on something else
(in systemic grammar)
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 (def. 3)
(as modifier): a contingency clause
logic
the state of being contingent
a contingent statement
dependence on chance; uncertainty
statistics
the degree of association between theoretical and observed common frequencies of two graded or classified variables. It is measured by the chi-square test
(as modifier): a contingency table; the contingency coefficient
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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