contingent
pronunciation
How to pronounce contingent in British English:
UK [kənˈtɪndʒənt]
How to pronounce contingent in American English:
US [kənˈtɪndʒənt]
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- Noun:
- a gathering of persons representative of some larger group
- a temporary military unit
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- Adjective:
- possible but not certain to occur
- determined by conditions or circumstances not yet established
- uncertain because of uncontrollable circumstances
Word Origin
- contingent (adj.)
- late 14c., from Old French contingent or directly from Latin contingentem (nominative contingens) "happening, touching," present participle of contingere "to touch" (see contact). The noun is from 1540s, "thing happening by chance;" as "a group forming part of a larger group" from 1727.
Synonym
undetermined indefinite borderline up uncertain in unascertainable open unpredictable air the unforeseeable unsettled undeterminable
accidental aleatory chance flukey haphazard casual serendipitous fluky fortuitous adventitious incidental occasional unexpected or unforeseen
to on stipulatory controlled incidental by hinging provisory circumstantial conditional depending dependent subject hanging
Example
- 1. Britain , which maintained the second-largest contingent of soldiers in the country , lost 179 troops during the conflict .
- 2. What is more , hong kong has a contingent of high-quality civil servants , large numbers of successful entrepreneurs and an array of professional talents .
- 3. In the latest print edition , the economist reports on his latest ploy to render irrelevant the newly elected legislature with its large opposition contingent .
- 4. The european union 's police training mission , always inadequate , is struggling to find staff to increase its contingent from about 200 to 400 .
- 5. History is contingent , the authors apologise , but history is what they hope to explain .