/keuhn tin"jeuhn see/ , n. , pl. contingencies .
1. dependence on chance or on the fulfillment of a condition; uncertainty; fortuitousness: Nothing was left to contingency.
2. a contingent event; a chance, accident, or possibility conditional on something uncertain: He was prepared for every contingency.
3. something incidental to a thing.
[ 1555-65; CONTING(ENT) + -ENCY ]
Syn. 2. emergency, likelihood, predicament.