contingency

English

Etymology

contingent +‎ -cy (16th century).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈtɪndʒənsi/

Noun

contingency (countable and uncountable, plural contingencies)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being contingent, of happening by chance; unpredictability. [1560s]
2. (countable) A possibility; something which may or may not happen. A chance occurrence, especially in finance, unexpected expenses. [1610s]
   • 1909, John Claude White, Sikhim and Bhutan, page 29:

     There was also the imperative necessity of creating a reserve fund for unforeseen contingencies, and the question ever present was how was money to be found.

3. (countable) An amount of money which a party to a contract has to pay to the other party (usually the supplier of a major project to the client) if he or she does not fulfill the contract according to the specification.
4. (logic, countable) A statement which is neither a tautology nor a contradiction.

Synonyms

• (quality of happening by chance): possibility
• See also Thesaurus:option

Antonyms

• (quality of happening by chance): inevitability, impossibility

Coordinate terms

• (statement which is neither a tautology nor a contradiction): contradiction, tautology

Derived terms

• contingency plan

Translations

quality of being contingent; unpredictability

• Bulgarian: непредвидимост f (nepredvidimost)
• Dutch: contingentie (nl) f, onvoorspelbaarheid (nl) f
• Finnish: epävarmuus (fi), ennustamattomuus
• French: contingence (fr) f, éventualité (fr) f
• German: Kontingenz (de) f
• Hungarian: esetlegesség (hu)
• Italian: contingenza (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 偶然 (ja) (gūzen), 偶然性 (gūzensei)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani:

• Portuguese: contingência (pt) f
• Russian: непредви́димость f (nepredvídimostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: kontingentnost
• Spanish: contingencia (es) f, eventualidad f
• Swedish: oförutsägbarhet c

possibility; something which may or may not happen

• Dutch: contingentie (nl) f
• Finnish: mahdollinen tapahtuma, kontingenssi
• German: Kontingenz (de) f
• Hungarian: eshetőség (hu)
• Italian: contingenza (it)
• Japanese: 偶然 (ja) (gūzen), 偶然性 (gūzensei)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: contingência (pt) f
• Russian: случа́йность (ru) f (slučájnostʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: kontingencija (sh)
• Spanish: contingencia (es) f, eventualidad f, imprevisto (es) m
• Swedish: oförutsedd händelse c, tillfällighet (sv) c, eventualitet (sv) c, sammanträffande (sv) n

amount of money that will be paid if a project does not succeed

• Finnish: sopimussakko (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 成功報酬 (seikō-hōshū)

a statement which is neither a tautology nor a contradiction

• Finnish: kontingenssi
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}