A fact is contingent if it might not have been the case. For example, it is a fact that I am now typing; but this is a contingent fact, since it could have been the case that i was not typing (either because I was doing something else, or because I did not exist, or ...).

Sometimes people talk about beings as well as facts being contingent. Typically, what is meant by `contingent being' is `being whose existence is contingent', i.e. a being which could have failed to exist.