contingent

1. 1.

   possible but not certain to occur

   “they had to plan for contingent expenses”

   Similarpossible
2. 2.

   being determined by conditions or circumstances that follow

   “arms sales contingent on the approval of congress”

   Synonymscontingent oncontingent upondependent ondependant ondependent upondependant upondepending on

   Similarconditional
3. 3.

   uncertain because of uncontrollable circumstances

   “the results of confession were not contingent, they were certain”

   Similaruncertain

1. 1.

   a gathering of persons representative of some larger group

   “each nation sent a contingent of athletes to the Olympics”

   Broadergathering
2. 2.

   a temporary military unit

   “the peacekeeping force includes one British contingent”

   Synonymsdetail

   Broadermilitary unit

   military

Other forms of contingent

plural

contingents·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about contingent

What does contingent mean?

contingent means "possible but not certain to occur". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in contingent?

contingent has 3 syllables: con-tin-gent. The stress falls on "tin". In IPA it is /kənˈtɪndʒənt/.

What is another word for contingent?

Close synonyms include contingent on, contingent upon, dependent on, dependant on, dependent upon. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is contingent a common word?

contingent is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.