contiguously

Contiguously is an adverb that describes things placed next to each other, touching, or sharing a boundary, with no gaps. It derives from the adjective contiguous, which in turn comes from Latin contiguus, from con- “together” and tangere “to touch.”

Common uses of contiguously occur in geography and everyday description. In geography, the term is closely associated with the concept of contiguity—regions that are directly adjacent. The phrase the contiguous United States refers to the 48 adjoining states on the North American continent, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, which are noncontiguous. In general language, objects laid contiguously are arranged side by side without intervening space.

In computing and data organization, contiguously arranged memory blocks or data elements are stored in adjacent addresses, which can improve cache locality and access speed. The term also appears in other technical contexts to describe things that touch or are adjacent in a sequence.