contigous

Contiguous is an adjective that describes things that touch or are connected without gaps. In geometry and geography, a region is contiguous if it forms a single, unbroken area. In computer science and data storage, a block of memory or data is described as contiguous when its units occupy consecutive addresses, forming an uninterrupted sequence.

The term contigous is a common misspelling of contiguous and is not recognized as a standard variant in formal writing. When referring to the concept correctly, the spelling contiguous should be used. The word derives from the Latin contiguus, meaning touching.

In genomics, contig (short for contiguous sequence) refers to a continuous stretch of DNA assembled from overlapping sequencing reads. A contig represents an unbroken sequence in an assembly process, though many genome assemblies also include gaps between contigs that are later bridged or scaffolded. The adjective contiguous can be used to describe a region of a genome that is assembled without gaps, but real data often contains unresolved gaps within assemblies.

In memory management, contiguous allocation assigns a process a single, continuous block of memory, which can improve spatial locality but may lead to fragmentation over time. By contrast, noncontiguous approaches, such as paging or segmentation, allow a process to occupy multiple blocks.

Overall, contiguous and related terms emphasize unbroken, adjacent relationships, while contigous is typically regarded as a misspelling to be avoided.