Certainty

Definition: Certainty

Certainty

Noun

1. The state of being certain: "his certainty reassured the others".

2. Something that is certain; "his victory is a certainty".

Date "certainty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Etymology: Certainty \Cer"tain*ty\, noun; plural Certainties. [Old French certainet['e].]. (references)

Domain	Definition
Computing	A measure of the confidence placed by a user or expert system in the validity of a proposition, hypothesis, or inferential rule. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonym: Certainty

Synonym: sure thing (n). (additional references)

Synonym by domain: certainties (computing).

Antonyms: doubt (n), uncertainty (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Belief	Persuasion, conviction, convincement, plerophory, self-conviction; certainty; opinion, mind, view; conception, thinking; impression; (idea); surmise; conclusion; (judgment).
Certainty	Noun: certainty; necessity; surety, assurance; dead certainty, moral certainty; infallibleness; Adjective: infallibility, reliability; indubitableness, inevitableness, unquestionableness.
	Adverb: certainly; Adjective: for certain, certes, sure, no doubt, doubtless, and no mistake, flagrante delicto, sure enough, to be sure, of course, as a matter of course, a coup sur, to a certainty; in truth; (truly); at any rate, at all events; without fail; coute que coute, coute qu'il coute; whatever may happen, if the worst come to the worst; come what may, happen what may, come what will; sink or swim; rain or shine.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	That's as much certainty as anyone can give me. But I've got some good news: I no longer have any fear of death (Fight Club; writing credit: Jim Uhls) This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime (The Bridges of Madison County; writing credit: Richard LaGravenese) And the certainty that sooner or later he would use it against me within the company (Klute; writing credit: Andy Lewis; Dave Lewis) One good, solid hope's worth a cartload of certainty. (Doctor Who; writing credit: Basil Caplan; Martin Defalco) There's only one certainty in life (Dragon Ball Z; writing credit: Chris Forbis; Eric Johnson)
Lyrics	The tears of joy for all the pleasure in the certainty (Truly Madly Deeply; performing artist: Savage Garden)
Movie/TV Titles	A Dead Certainty (1920)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Absolute Certainty (reference) From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century (reference) The Torch of Certainty (reference) Wisdom from the Greater Community: How to Live With Certainty, Strength & Wisdom in an Emerging World (New Knowledge Library) (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Certainty of Chance [CD B] [CD-SINGLE] (reference) Quest for Certainty (reference) Terrible Certainty [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Arthur Schopenhauer	The present is the only reality and the only certainty.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld	Live on doubts; it becomes madness or stops entirely as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.
George Eliot	No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.
Henry David Thoreau	If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.
Nathaniel Hawthorne	From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.
Pliny The Elder	The only certainty is that nothing is certain.
	In these matters the only certainty is that there is nothing certain.
Thomas Carlyle	One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.
Voltaire	Doubt is not a pleasant mental state but certainty is a ridiculous one.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
Brown v. Board of Education	1954	What others in Congress and the state legislatures had in mind cannot be determined with any degree of certainty. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	It is a certainty.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	In his face nothing could be distinguished with certainty.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		The inheritance of one or two APOE e4 alleles does not predict AD with certainty. (references)
		Its use should be reserved for patients in whom a diagnosis has been established with reasonable certainty. (references)
		Some individuals choose to undergo the test out of a desire for greater certainty about their genetic status. (references)
Business		Planned investments have been postponed until economic certainty returns. (references)
		In order for the multi-modal system to be viable, there must be certainty that the cargo will move with the same cadence regardless of the means of transportation used. The use of alternative means of transporting goods all over the globe is the solution for cutting the costs of logistics. (references)
		This flexibility difference can affect the variables of any business deal. Stricter adherence to the written law in the northern regions allows for more certainty in the financial outcome of a deal, but the structure of the deal -- if not in the foreigner’s favor -- cannot be altered as easily to arrive at an acceptable outcome. (references)
Civil Liberties	Israel and the occupied territories	A censorship agreement between the Government and media representatives applies to all media organizations in the country and provides that military censorship is to be applied only in cases involving national security issues that have a near certainty of harming the country's defense interests. (references)
Economic History	Egypt	Without the certainty of a letter of credit, defaults are a strong possibility. (references)
	Australia	In the final analysis, there is no alternative to a carefully drafted license agreement, which provides certainty in defining the parties' mutual obligations. (references)
Human Rights	Burma	Reports of abuses, especially those committed in prisons or ethnic minority areas, often emerged months or years after the abuses allegedly were committed and seldom could be verified with certainty. (references)
	Brazil	The report stated that death squads "arise because of the loss of credibility in the justice and public security institutions and the certainty of impunity as the result of the incapacity of the institutions that have jurisdiction in resolving the problem." The report indicated that death squad activity appeared to be declining except in Bahia. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion -- thus: Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man. Minor Premise: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds; therefore -- Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second. This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
James Monroe	1817-1825	With respect to internal causes, those great principles point out with equal certainty the policy to be pursued.
John Quincy Adams	1825-1829	The effect of taxation upon revenue can seldom be foreseen with certainty.
Harry S. Truman	1945-1953	On the other hand, there are the vast majority of American businessmen who are not holding back goods, but who need certainty about the Government pricing policy in order to fix their own long-range pricing policies.
George Bush	1989-1993	Not, not more bureaucracy, not more red tape, but the certainty that here at home, and especially in our dealings with other nations, environmental issues have the status they deserve.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Certainty" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Certainty" is used about 1,377 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	1,377	5,803

Expressions using "certainty": be a certainty ♦ Clear Certainty Rundown ♦ dead certainty ♦ moral certainty ♦ of a certainty ♦ say smth. with certainty ♦ that's a certainty. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "certainty": near-certainty.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "certainty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaans		sekerheid (safety, security). (various references)

Albanian		siguri (aplomb, assurance, assuredness, asylum, certitude, confidence, cover, dependability, guaranty, hostage, reliability, reliance, safety, security, sureness, surety, trustiness), gjë e sigurt. (various references)

Arabic		يقين (conviction), ‏يقين (certitude, sureness, surety), ‏قناعة (assurance, content, contentedness, contentment, conviction, persuasion, satisfaction, temperance), ‏حقيقة (actuality, fact, genuineness, matter of fact, reality, sooth, truth, veracity, verity), ‏أمر لا ريب فيه, ‏ثقة (assurance, belief, certitude, confidence, credit, faith, positivism, reliable, reliance, sureness, surety, trust). (various references)

Bulgarian		увереност (assurance, certitude, confidence, reassurance, security, sureness, surety, trust), сигурност (assurance, certitude, dependability, poise, reliability, safety, security, soundness, surety), осигуреност (indemnity), несъмнен факт, неминуемост, положителност (positiveness). (various references)

Chinese		把握 (assurance, grasp, hold, seize). (various references)

Czech		jistota (aplomb, assurance, certitude, evidence, snip, sureness, surety). (various references)

Danish		sikkerhed (safety, security). (various references)

Dutch		certainty factor, zekerheid (safety, security), vastigheid, vastheid (resistance), stelligheid, securiteit, mate van onzekerheid. (various references)

Esperanto		certeco. (various references)

Farsi		یقین (Certitude, Positive, Sure), امرمسلم (Act), اطمینان (Assurance, Certitude, Confidence, Cretain, Persuasion, Security, Surety, Trust). (various references)

Finnish		varmuus (assurance, safety, security, sureness). (various references)

French		certitude (certitude), assurance (certitude). (various references)

German		sicherheit (aplomb, assurance, caution, certitude, certitudes, collateral, competence, confidence, firmness, guaranty, immunity, reliability, safeness, safety, secureness, security, self-assurance, steadiness, sureness, surety), gewissheit (assuredness, certitude), Gewißheit (assuredness, certitude, sureness), bestimmtheit (definiteness, determinateness, determination, dogmaticalness, finality, firmness, positiveness, positiviness). (various references)

Greek		βεβαιότητα (assuredness, certitude, sureness, surety). (various references)

Hebrew		ו�"אי (certain, certainly, indubitable, infallible, sure), ו�"אות (certitude, positivity, sureness), קביעות (constancy, durability, fixity, permanence, regularity, steadiness), אמת (faithfulness, honesty, sooth, truth), �"בר בטוח, בורי (health, strength). (various references)

Hungarian		biztos (certain, commissioner, dependable, discerning, firm, infallible, positive, secure, snug, steady, sure, trustworthy, unfaltering). (various references)

Indonesian		kepastian (sureness), keniscayaan. (various references)

Irish		deimhin (certain). (various references)

Italian		certezza (assurance, assuredness, certitude, security, sureness). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		確実度 , 確実性 , 確実　 (reliability, soundness), 確実 (reliability, soundness), 本命 (favorite, likely winner, sure thing). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ほ�"めい (favorite, likely winner, real name, sure thing, wearing oneself out with work), かくじつど, かくじつせい, かくじつ (every other day, reliability, soundness). (various references)

Korean		확실성 (Certainties). (various references)

Manx		shickyrys (assurance, conviction, security, stability, steadfastness, sureness, validity). (various references)

Pig Latin		ertaintycay.(various references)

Polish		pewność. (various references)

Portuguese		certeza (assurance, assuredness, certain, certitude, confidence, security, surety). (various references)

Portuguese Brazilian		certeza. (various references)

Romanian		certitudine (assurance, assuredness, certitude, resolution, surety), siguranţã (assurance, assuredness, cocksureness, confidence, fuse, light fuse, lock, reliability, resolution, retentiveness, safety, security, surety). (various references)

Russian		уверенность;достоверность, уверенность (assuredness, certitude, confidence, security, surefootedness, sureness, surety), несомненный факт. (various references)

Scottish		cinnt. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		uverenje (assurance, assuredness, testimonial), sigurnost (certitude, fastness, safeness, sureness), sigurna činjenica, nužnost (necessity, need), izvesnost (surety). (various references)

Spanish		certidumbre (assuredness, certitude, sureness), certeza (assurance, assuredness, determinateness, determination, sureness, surety). (various references)

Swedish		visshet (certitude). (various references)

Thai		สิ่งที่แน่นอน, ความแน่นอน (surety). (various references)

Turkish		kesinlik (accuracy, assuredness, certitude, conclusiveness, decisiveness, definiteness, demonstrativeness, downrightness, exactitude, exactness, finality, firmness, implicitness, nicety, positiveness, preciseness, precision, rigor, rigour, roundness, sureness, surety, the absolute), kesin olan şey, katiyet (certitude, decisiveness, definiteness, downrightness, exactitude). (various references)

Ukrainian		упевненість (assurance, assuredness, certitude, conviction, reliance, security, sureness, surety), безперечний факт, певність (certitude). (various references)

Vietnamese		điều chắc chắn vật đã nắm trong tay sự tin chắc. (various references)

Welsh		sicrwydd (assurance). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	certitudo. (various references)
Middle French	1400-1600	certitude. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Luke Chapter 1, Verse 4
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Ina epignwV peri wn kathchqhV logwn thn asfaleian
Latin	405	Vulgate	Ut cognoscas eorum verborum de quibus eruditus es veritatem
Old English	990	West Saxon	þæt ðu oncnawe þara worda soþfæstnesse of ðam ðe þu gelæred eart;
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	Thou best Theofile, that thou knowe the treuthe of tho wordis, of whiche thou art lerned.
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	That thou myghtest knowe the certente of thoo thinges wher of thou arte informed.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	That thou mayest know the certainty of those things in which thou hast been instructed.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	So that you might have certain knowledge of those things about which you were given teaching.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Luke Chapter 1, Verse 4
Cebuano	aron imong maila ang pagkatinuod sa mga butang nga gikasugilon kanimo.
Croatian	da se tako osvjedoèiš o pouzdanosti svega u èemu si pouèen.
Danish	for at du kan erkende Pålideligheden af de Ting, hvorom du er bleven mundtligt undervist.
Dutch	Opdat gij moogt kennen de zekerheid der dingen, waarvan gij onderwezen zijt.
Finnish	että oppisit tuntemaan, kuinka varmat ne asiat ovat, jotka sinulle on opetettu.
French	afin que tu reconnaisses la certitude des enseignements que tu as reçus.
German	auf das du gewissen Grund erfahrest der Lehre, in welcher du unterrichtet bist.
Haitian Creole	Konsa wa kapab rekonèt tou sa yo te moutre ou yo se verite yo ye.
Hungarian	Hogy megtudhasd azoknak a dolgoknak bizonyosságát, a melyekre taníttatál.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Saya melakukan itu, supaya Tuan tahu bahwa apa yang telah diajarkan kepada Tuan memang benar.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	supaya engkau dapat mengetahui kesungguhan segala sesuatu yang diajarkan kepadamu.
Italian	perché ti possa rendere conto della solidit� degli insegnamenti che hai ricevuto.
Latvian	Lai tu pârliecinâtos tâs mâcîbas patiesîbâ, kurâ tu esi mâcîts.
Manx Gaelic	Dy vod tushtey share y ve ayd jeh firrinys ny reddyn shen, t'ou er ny ve ynsit ayndoo.
Maori	Kia matau ai koe ki te tuturutanga o nga mea i whakaakona ai koe.
Norwegian	forat du kan lære å kjenne hvor pålitelige de lærdommer er som du er oplært i.
Portuguese	para que conheças plenamente a verdade das coisas em que foste instruído.
Rumanian	ca sq poyi cunoawte astfel temeinicia knvqyqturilor, pe cari le-ai primit prin viu grai.
Russian	ЮФП�'Щ ФЩ ХЪОБМ ФЧЕТ�"ПЕ ПУОПЧБОЙЕ ФПЗП ХЮЕОЙС, Ч ЛПФПТПН �'ЩМ ОБУФБЧМЕО.
Shuar	Jintintramawarma Nú nankaamas nekaata tusan wakerakun aatjame.
Spanish	para que conozcas bien la verdad de las cosas en las cuales has sido instruido.
Swahili	ili nawe uweze kujionea mwenyewe ukweli wa mambo yale uliyofundishwa.
Swedish	så att du kan inse huru tillförlitliga de stycken äro, i vilka du har blivit undervisad.
Uma	Patuju-ku, bona nu'inca kamakono-na mpu'u napa to oti-mi ratudui' -koko.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words ending with "certainty": uncertainty. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Certainty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ceratite, certainity, certainlt, certainy, certaitnty, certanty, Certentye, certianty, Kersaint. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "certainty" (pronounced ser"tuntē)
7	s er" t u n t ē	uncertainty.
4	-u n t ē	seventy, sovereignty, warranty.
3	-n t ē	ante, anti, aplenty, appointee, Auntie, bounty, Canty, cognoscenti, county, dainty, diamante, jaunty, flinty, inti, Monte, ninety, panty, plenty, pointy, scanty, Shanti, shanty, twenty, vigilante.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-e-i-n-r-t-t-y"
	-1 letter: interact, tenacity.
	-2 letters: cattery, cattier, ceratin, certain, citrate, cittern, creatin, cyanite, intreat, iterant, nattier, nectary, nictate, nitrate, tacrine, tantric, tertian, tetanic.
	-3 letters: acetin, attire, cairny, canter, carnet, carney, carnie, cattie, centai, centra, cretin, enatic, entity, intact, natter, nectar, nicety, nitery, ratine, ratite, ratten, recant, retain, retina, retint, tanrec, tetany, tinter, trance, treaty, tyrant.
	Words containing the letters "a-c-e-i-n-r-t-t-y"
	+1 letter: centrality.
	+2 letters: actinometry, anticruelty, antipyretic, contrariety, intricately, pertinacity, uncertainty.
	+3 letters: antihysteric, antipyretics, clatteringly, interfaculty, scatteringly, tetracycline.
	+4 letters: antihysterics, antisymmetric, centripetally, confraternity, contrastively, interactively, intrathecally, noncreativity, parasynthetic, precipitantly, tetracyclines, underactivity.
	+5 letters: directionality, inarticulately, rectangularity, teratogenicity, unattractively.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day
certainty	18
absolute business cannot certainty demand future predicted while	3
agree agreement california certainty in law reasonable terms	3
certainty wittgenstein	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Certainty

Definition: Certainty

Certainty

Noun

Specialty Definition: Certainty

Synonym: Certainty

Synonyms within Context: Certainty

Belief

Certainty

Crosswords: Certainty

Modern Usage: Certainty

Screenplays

Lyrics

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Certainty

Books

Music

Familiar Quotations: Certainty

Arthur Schopenhauer

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

George Eliot

Henry David Thoreau

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pliny The Elder

Thomas Carlyle

Voltaire

Historic Usage: Certainty

Brown v. Board of Education

Use in Literature: Certainty

Emma

Austen, Jane

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Non-Fiction Usage: Certainty

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

Speeches: Certainty

James Monroe

John Quincy Adams

Harry S. Truman

George Bush

Usage Frequency: Certainty

Expression: Certainty

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Certainty

Modern Translation: Certainty

Afrikaans

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Farsi

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Irish

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Pig Latin

Polish

Portuguese

Portuguese Brazilian

Romanian

Russian

Scottish

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Thai

Turkish