An array is a contiguous memory location which holds data. The data can be integers, characters, floating point numbers, structures etc. Each array element takes a distinct memory location. They all have distinct address.

To allocate memory for an array in C, you can use the `malloc` or `calloc` function from the `stdlib. h` library. These functions allocate memory from the heap, returning a pointer to the first element.

Contiguous memory allocation refers to a memory management technique in which whenever there occurs a request by a user process for the memory, one of the sections of the contiguous memory block would be given to that process, in accordance with its requirement.