The Collaborative International Dictionary
Contingence \Con*tin"gence\, n. See Contingency.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 16c., from Medieval Latin *contingentia, from contingent- present participle stem of contingere "to touch" (see contact (n.)).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context geometry English) contact; touching. 2 contingency.
WordNet
n. a possible event or occurrence or result [syn: eventuality, contingency]
Usage examples of "contingence".
And without any noticeable interregnum of full consciousness, he seemed to pass right on into another kind of dreamthe transition being effected by the contingence upon the point of his jaw of a tearing uppercut that started well below the Saint's waistline and consummated every erg of its weight and velocity at the most vital angle of the victim's face.
The 'cosmological' one, so-called, reasons from the contingence of the world to a First Cause which must contain whatever perfections the world itself contains.