Legal Definitions - conterminous

Conterminous describes entities that share a common boundary or are entirely contained within a single, larger boundary. It refers to things that are adjacent or coextensive in space.

Conterminous describes things that either share a common border or are contained entirely within a larger, continuous boundary.

• Consider a situation where a city council is planning new infrastructure. They might discuss the need for a new road that connects two conterminous residential districts, meaning the districts are adjacent and share a common border.

  This example illustrates the first meaning, where the two residential districts are side-by-side and share a boundary.

• In a property dispute, a surveyor might be called to precisely mark the line between two conterminous land parcels to resolve disagreements over shared access or fencing.

  Here, "conterminous" refers to the two parcels of land that are directly next to each other and share a common property line.

• When discussing the continental United States, people often refer to the 48 conterminous states, which are all connected on the North American landmass, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

  This example demonstrates the second meaning, where all 48 states are enclosed within one continuous geographical boundary, forming a single block of territory.