certain

• certaine (obsolete)

From Middle English certeyn, certein, certain, borrowed from Old French certain, from a Vulgar Latin unattested form *certānus, extended form of Latin certus (“fixed, resolved, certain”), of the same origin as cretus, past participle of cernere (“to separate, perceive, decide”). Displaced native Middle English wis, iwis (“certain, sure”) (from Old English, ġewiss (“certain, sure”) and alternative Middle English spelling sertane (“some, certain”)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːtn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝtn̩/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝtən/, /ˈsɝtn̩/

• Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tən
• Hyphenation: cer‧tain

certain (comparative more certain, superlative most certain)

1. Sure, positive, not doubting.

   I was certain of my decision.

2. (obsolete) Determined; resolved.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Milton

     However, I with thee have fixed my lot, / Certain to undergo like doom.

3. Not to be doubted or denied; established as a fact.
   • Bible, Dan. ii. 45

     The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

4. Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable.

   Bankruptcy is the certain outcome of your constant gambling and lending.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     Virtue that directs our ways / Through certain dangers to uncertain praise.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all.

5. Unfailing; infallible.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Mead

     I have often wished that I knew as certain a remedy for any other distemper.

6. Fixed or stated; regular; determinate.
   • Bible, Ex. xvi. 4

     The people go out and gather a certain rate every day.

7. Not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; sometimes used independently as a noun, and meaning certain persons; see also "one".
   • Bible, Luke v. 12

     It came to pass when he was in a certain city.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Macaulay

     About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace and decorum.

• (not doubting): See also Thesaurus:certain
• (sure to happen): unavoidable; See also Thesaurus:inevitable

• (not doubting): uncertain
• (sure to happen): impossible, incidental

• certainly (adv)

• certainty (n)

certain

1. Having been determined but not specified. The quality of some particular subject or object which is known by the speaker to have been specifically singled out among similar entities of its class.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”

   Certain people are good at running.

certain

1. (with of) Unnamed or undescribed members (of).

   There where serious objections to certain of the proposals.

   • Bible, Acts xxiii. 12

     Certain of the Jews banded together.

• (unnamed or undescribed members (of)): some

certain pl (plural only)

1. (with "the") Something certain.
   • 2011, John Lyons, The Phantom of Chance: From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature

     Thinking about the uncertain refines our perception of the certain, and generally this takes place in a framework in which the uncertain is the future and the certain is the present.

• certain at OneLook Dictionary Search
• certain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• certain in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Cretian, ant rice, cantier, ceratin, creatin, crinate, nacrite, tacrine, tercian

From Old French certain, from Vulgar Latin unattested form *certānus, extended form of Latin certus (“fixed, resolved, certain”).

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁ.tɛ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

certain (feminine singular certaine, masculine plural certains, feminine plural certaines)

1. certain (sure, positive)

   Il est certain qu'il viendra.

   It is certain that he will arrive.

2. certain (fixed, determined)
3. certain (specified, particular)

certain m (plural certains)

1. certain; certainty

certain

1. certain: a determined but unspecified amount of ; some

   Certaines personnes vont aller.

   Some people are going.

• certainement
• certitude
• incertain

• “certain” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• carient, centrai, cernait, crainte, criante, écriant, encirât, encrait

• (Picard dialect) chertain

From Vulgar Latin *certānus, from Latin certus. Compare Old Italian and Old Spanish certano.

certain m (oblique and nominative feminine singular certaine)

1. certain; sure

• seur

• cert

• Middle English: certeyn (borrowed)
  • English: certain
• French: certain