contiguity

English

Etymology

From French contiguïté, from Late Latin contiguitās, from Latin contiguus (“bordering upon”), from contingō (“I touch or border upon”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɒn.tɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑn.tɪˈɡju.ɪ.ti/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑn.təˈɡju.ə.ti/, [ˌkɑn.təˈɡju.ə.ɾi], [ˌkɑn.ɾəˈɡju.ə.ɾi]
• Rhymes: -uːɪti
• Hyphenation: con‧ti‧gu‧i‧ty

Noun

contiguity (countable and uncountable, plural contiguities)

1. A state in which two or more physical objects are physically touching one another or in which sections of a plane border on one another.
   • 1958–1960, R.S. Peters, The Concept of Motivation, Routledge & Kegan Paul (second edition), chapter i: “Types of Explanation in Psychological Theories”, page 12:

     In the mechanical conception of ‘cause’ it is…demanded that there should be spatial and temporal contiguity between the movements involved.

Synonyms

• (state in which objects are physically touching): synapse (of neurons)

Antonyms

• discontiguity

Translations

state in which objects are physically touching

• Bulgarian: допир (bg) (dopir)
• Catalan: contigüitat
• French: contiguïté (fr) f
• Galician: contigüidade (gl) f
• Italian: contiguità (it) f
• Polish: przyległość f
• Portuguese: contiguidade (pt) f
• Romanian: contiguitate (ro) f
• Russian: соприкосновение (ru) n (soprikosnoveniye)
• Spanish: contigüidad (es) f
• Swedish: kontiguitet c

References

• contiguity in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
• “contiguity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “contiguity”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Notes: