contiguous

adjective con·tig·u·ous \ kən-ˈti-gyə-wəs , -gyü-əs \

Definition of contiguous

1 :being in actual contact :touching along a boundary or at a point

the 48 contiguous states

2 of angles :adjacent 2

3 :next or near in time or sequence

The fires were contiguous with the earthquake.

4 :touching or connected throughout in an unbroken sequence

contiguous row houses

contiguous vineyards

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contiguously

adverb

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contiguousness

noun

See contiguous defined for English-language learners

See contiguous defined for kids

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Examples of contiguous in a Sentence

And in the west, contiguous to Lebanon, was the mountain stronghold of Latakia … —Robert D. Kaplan, Atlantic, February 1993
The Santa Monica Mountains, a sort of foot-note to the big contiguous ranges, stood off to the southwest of us, discrete and small. —John McPhee, New Yorker, 26 Sept. 1988
'I've had my men looking into the land situation … and they think they could get us an additional thirty thousand acres, not all of it contiguous but we might make some trades.' —James A. Michener, Texas, 1985
Connecticut and Massachusetts are contiguous states.

Recent Examples of contiguous from the Web

That may be the most in recorded history for a tropical cyclone in the contiguous U.S., breaking a mark also set in Texas back in 1978.

— brian k sullivan, Bloomberg.com, "Harvey Makes Second Landfall on Battered Gulf Coastline," 30 Aug. 2017
Tropical Storm Harvey broke the previous record for rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the contiguous U.S. on Tuesday, with a top reading of 51.88 inches of rain in Cedar Bayou, Texas.

— margaret hartmann, Daily Intelligencer, "Floodwater Still Rising as Harvey Makes Second Landfall in Louisiana," 30 Aug. 2017
Today's eclipse was the first visible from the contiguous U.S. since 1979.

— leada gore, AL.com, "Solar eclipse 2017 live updates: When is the next solar eclipse?," 21 Aug. 2017
The Aug. 21 eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. since 1979.

— mahita gajanan, EW.com, "How to watch the total solar eclipse live online," 18 Aug. 2017
Located in the only part of the contiguous United States with a tropical monsoon climate — like those in India and Southeast Asia — Ranchopatel gave him not just sweet fruit, but a new direction.

— rachel wharton, New York Times, "For Niven Patel, Farm-to-Table Cooking Means Taro and Mangoes," 14 Aug. 2017
FACT: On 9/11 there were only 14 fighter jets on alert in the contiguous 48 states.

— Popular Mechanics, "Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report - The Planes," 1 Aug. 2017
That acreage, a 1.5 square-mile area the size of Shorewood, could be assembled from parcels that initially aren't contiguous, the source said.

— charles p. pierce, Esquire, "Made in the USA, Baby," 27 July 2017
Across the contiguous states, about 10 percent of the country experienced such rains annually from 1901 to 2000, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

— anthony r. wood, Philly.com, "Yet another soaking on the way as flooding threat looms," 27 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'contiguous.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

You probably won't be surprised to learn that the word contact is a relative of contiguous, but would you believe that contagion and contingent are too? All of those words derive from the Latin contingere, meaning "to have contact with." The words contact and contiguous are fairly easy to connect with contingere, but what of the other two? In its early use, contingent was a synonym of "touching," and if you remember that touching something can pollute it (and that another meaning of contingere was "to pollute"), then contagion logically ties in, too.

Origin and Etymology of contiguous

Latin contiguus, from contingere to have contact with — more at contingent

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1609

See Words from the same year

contiguous Synonyms

Synonyms

abutting, adjoining, bordering, conterminous, adjacent, flanking, flush, fringing, joining, juxtaposed, neighboring, skirting, touching, verging

Antonyms

nonadjacent, noncontiguous

Related Words

approximate, close, closest, immediate, near, nearby, nearest, next-door, nigh; attached, communicating, connected, connecting, interconnecting, joined, linked, united; bounding, circumjacent, embracing, encircling, enclosing (also inclosing), fencing, rimming, surrounding; marginal, peripheral, tangent, tangential; ambient, encompassing

Near Antonyms

apart, detached, disconnected, discrete, free-standing, isolate, isolated, removed, separate, single, unattached, unconnected, unlinked; away, distant, far, faraway, far-off, farthest, remote; discontinuous, noncontinuous; broken up, disjoined, dissevered, dissociated, disunited, divided, divorced, parted, ramified, resolved, severed, split, sundered, uncoupled, unyoked

Synonym Discussion of contiguous

adjacent, adjoining, contiguous, juxtaposed mean being in close proximity. adjacent may or may not imply contact but always implies absence of anything of the same kind in between.