Definition of "contiguous" []

• Sharing an edge or boundary; touching. (adjective)
• Neighboring; adjacent. (adjective)
• Connecting without a break: the 48 contiguous states. (adjective)
• Connected in time; uninterrupted: served two contiguous terms in office. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The 48 states besides Alaska and Hawaii are referred to as the contiguous U.S., rather than the continental U.S."
• "Both Bush and Kerry advocate the creation of a Palestinian state that would be viable and "contiguous" - that is, something more than a collection of little Bantustans like the pseudo-sovereign states set up by the old apartheid regime in South Africa."
• "During a 2009 speech to the Indianapolis Rotary Club, he called the state "the wild west of redistricting," complaining that the only rule governing the process is that districts have to be "contiguous" - and there's little clarification about what that means."