Meaning & use
contingently
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Meanings
adverbnot comparable
In a way that depends on something else happening or being true first, rather than being certain by itself.
Grammar: Usually placed before the verb or adjective it modifies: contingently approved.
Patterns
- contingently on something
The grant was awarded contingently, pending a final audit.
He accepted the job offer contingently, since his visa had not yet arrived.
The plan can only be viewed contingently, because the budget may change.
adverbnot comparabletechnical
In a way that happens by chance and could have been otherwise, not by necessity.
Grammar: Mainly used in philosophy and logic to describe facts that are not necessary.
Philosophers say the statement is true only contingently, since the world might have been different.
The outcome depended contingently on a few lucky events.
A fact that holds contingently is not the same as one that must always hold.
Common combinations
- contingently true
- The claim is contingently true, not true in every possible case.
- contingently approved
- The loan was contingently approved while they checked her records.
- act contingently
- The committee has to act contingently until the court rules.
- contingently dependent
- The deal is contingently dependent on a clean inspection.
Synonyms and how they differ
- conditionally
- Conditionally is the everyday choice and names an explicit condition, while contingently suggests a looser dependence on events that may or may not occur.
- provisionally
- Provisionally stresses that something is temporary and open to change, while contingently stresses what it hangs on.
- accidentally
- Accidentally implies something happened by mistake or luck, whereas contingently in the philosophical sense simply means not by necessity.
Opposites
Word family
- contingent adjective
- depending on something else, or possible but not certain
- contingency noun
- a possible future event that needs planning for
- contingent noun
- a group of people sent or representing a place
Commonly confused: contingently or contiguously?
contingently vs contiguously
Contiguously means touching or next to something in space; contingently has nothing to do with position and means depending on something else.
Practice
The funding was approved ____, so it will vanish if the council changes its mind.
Choose one answer.
Contingently fits because the approval depends on another decision. Necessarily would mean it could not fail, and contiguously is about physical closeness.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “contingently”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.