Contingent for Dummies

Contingent is a word that means something depends on another thing happening first. It's like when you want to go to the park, but you can only go if it doesn't rain. So going to the park is contingent on the weather being nice. Another way to think about it is like a puzzle. To complete the puzzle, you need all the pieces to fit together, and if one piece is missing, you can't finish it. That missing piece is contingent on finding it, otherwise the puzzle won't be complete.

Contingent can also mean that something is uncertain or it could go either way. It's like when you have a soccer game, and the outcome of the game is contingent on how well each team plays. If one team plays really well, they have a greater chance of winning, but if both teams are equally good, it becomes uncertain who will win. So the result of the game is contingent on how well each team performs.

In general, contingent means that something is dependent on something else happening or that it is uncertain and could go either way. It's like a connection or a link between two things, where one thing relies on the other. So, if we use it in a sentence, we could say "Our picnic plans for tomorrow are contingent on the weather forecast being clear." This means that whether we can have the picnic or not depends on the weather being good.

So, in simple words, contingent means that something depends on something else happening or that it is uncertain and could go either way.