I.adjectiveCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a certain logic (=used when something does not seem sensible, but there are understandable reasons for it)
▪ With a certain logic, the child said that ‘ten and one’ would be the next number after ten.
a certain reluctance
▪ He showed a certain reluctance to come tonight.
a certain similarity (=a particular similarity)
▪ There are certain similarities between the two theories.
a certain/fair amount of sth
▪ Dina encountered a fair amount of envy among her colleagues.
a certain/particular kind
▪ A ‘besom’ is a particular kind of broom.
certain death (=definitely going to happen)
▪ Many of the prisoners faced certain death.
certain extinction (=extinction which will definitely happen)
▪ The crested ibis faces certain extinction in Japan after attempts to breed from the sole remaining pair have failed.
certain/inevitable doom (=sure to happen)
▪ Some environmentalists have concluded that the planet faces certain doom.
depend on certain factors
▪ Success depends on certain factors.
feel sure/certain (=think that something is definitely true)
▪ She felt sure she’d made the right decision.
in/under certain circumstances (=if particular conditions exist)
▪ In certain circumstances you may be refused a visa.
on certain conditions
▪ He said we could rent the house from him on certain conditions.
some/certain reservations
▪ Despite some reservations, I recommend this book.
take certain factors into account (=to consider factors when making a decision)
▪ You should take all these factors into account.
to some extent/to a certain extent (=partly)
▪ What you say is true to some extent, but it’s not the whole picture.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
absolutely
▪ It's 99% certain the deal will go through but doesn't want to identify the company until it's absolutely certain.
▪ No state requires that you be absolutely certain, before you file a report, that abuse is taking place.
▪ But you could rarely be absolutely certain.
▪ Consciousness, without any further necessary conclusions, is the only fact of which consciousness can be absolutely certain.
▪ The only absolutely certain thing in this life is death.
▪ No laboratory test or pathological finding can make an absolutely certain diagnosis of sarcoidosis.
▪ It is impossible for me not to be absolutely certain of it.
▪ Nor is it absolutely certain that that experience differs in any fundamental way from that of past eras.
almost
▪ In addition, Edgington's remarkable performance makes him an almost certain Olympic choice.
▪ Maintaining an inventory is almost certain to assure a higher loss payment.
▪ If the Tories are seeking to portray Mr Brown as a spendthrift, they are almost certain to fail.
▪ You are almost certain to get hundreds of Web pages to examine.
▪ What is almost certain is that royal land-holdings were vast, and they were probably particularly impressive in the north.
▪ The almost certain one is a third party candidacy by Ross Perot or even Pat Buchanan.
▪ The scheme was introduced by an influential group of senators and is almost certain to pass.
▪ I was almost certain before I got there that he was.
fairly
▪ Though afterwards she was fairly certain that Naylor had always meant to reject her anyway.
▪ They were fairly certain he was immune; certain enough to consider it worth the risk, at any rate.
▪ At least when face-to-face contact is made you are fairly certain that the message gets through.
▪ Of one thing I am fairly certain, namely that the glassfibre Seayak will carve through waves better.
▪ However, we are fairly certain of some features that such a unified theory should have.
▪ But something that is by definition inefficient is fairly certain also to be undignified.
▪ He was fairly certain she had no idea of how gentle he had been, how thoughtful.
▪ He was fairly certain now that he was walking into a trap, and wished he'd come armed.
virtually
▪ It also explains why it is virtually certain that Britain's main trunk lines will rely on optical fibre.
▪ We are virtually certain that this incident was a deliberate provocation.
▪ A healthy competition for places is never a bad thing and only Campbell, Scholes and Beckham are virtually certain of selection.
▪ The Gaylord family controls about 60 percent of the voting stock, so approval is virtually certain.
▪ A U.S. appeal of the decision is virtually certain and would take months.
▪ A senior Democratic aide said it was virtually certain that Democrats would push for censure.
▪ The Congress is virtually certain to declare itself independent of the Soviet Party.
▪ After a weekend in New York, Maddux said he was virtually certain of signing a five-year deal with the Yankees.
■ NOUN
amount
▪ We can accept a certain amount of luck in our explanations, but not too much.
▪ He puts it this way: Every defense company figures a certain amount of overhead into every contract.
▪ This arrangement requires a certain amount of restraint and co-operation on the part of the dominant males, but it clearly has compensatory advantages.
▪ You must have lived in your home a certain amount of time, for example.
▪ Not withstanding the arbitrary demands of the Tokugawa, domains enjoyed a certain amount of autonomy.
▪ The nature of Alix's profession demanded she kept a certain amount of medical equipment around.
▪ There is a certain amount of evidence to suggest that local Tory leaders played a part in inciting the unrest.
▪ Therefore turns should be stopped a certain amount before the actual heading - Undershoot your heading.
area
▪ These days, you just can't get insured at all if you're young and a biker in certain areas.
▪ It is not a completely new stage, however, as there are overlaps in certain areas.
▪ For the reasons outlined below, we have had to raise our Contents premiums in certain areas of the country.
▪ Rather, they are relatively more attentive or less attentive depending on their ability to process information in a certain area.
▪ These perceptions emphasize the pathology of the victims themselves and the pathological influences found in certain areas.
▪ Clearly certain areas - eg animal houses - may have statutory lighting levels.
▪ With the exception of certain areas of mental health, there appeared little clear medical evidence in support of these claims.
▪ In certain areas law centres, staffed by professional lawyers and advisers, offer a good free legal advice service.
aspect
▪ Thirdly, there are certain aspects of mass communication which are sometimes overlooked in media education.
▪ To some extent it is pOssible for parents to enhance certain aspects Of infant intelligence.
▪ These experiments tell us a great deal about certain aspects of cognitive processes, particularly their relative timing or sequencing.
▪ We can not direct or control or enhance certain aspects of our lives.
▪ Most considerations have concentrated on certain aspects and left others to the imagination.
▪ Quantum cryptography exploits a key principle of quantum mechanics, according to which certain aspects of any subatomic process are inherently unknowable.
▪ The inspectors said that there was poor provision in certain aspects of teaching children with reading difficulties.
▪ We have seen that Althusser invokes certain aspects of political and ideological practice to explain the reproduction of the relations of production.
case
▪ In certain cases it might well be that the defendant's ignorance will not help him.
▪ It may succeed temporarily, in certain cases, and more so with some people than with others.
▪ In certain cases, a prior mortgagee may make further advances to the mortgagor which will rank in priority to subsequent mortgages.
▪ In certain cases, the organization bears little blame for finding itself in such straits.
▪ In certain cases the law imposes very short time limits within which you must act.
▪ Because the indemnity basis may produce unfair results in certain cases.
▪ Indeed, although regulatory offences in the abstract may be regarded as of minor consequence they may in certain cases have drastic results.
▪ In certain cases, anaerobic conditions may be used to achieve specific clean-up goals, such as removing chlorinated compounds.
circumstances
▪ However, it has been claimed that some doctors in the province will perform abortions in certain circumstances.
▪ Under certain circumstances, however, children may learn a pidgin as their first language.
▪ The Obscene Publications Acts 1959 and 1964 might, under certain circumstances, have relevance.
▪ For example, under the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, age may be taken into account in certain circumstances.
▪ It may be that under certain circumstances one of the alternative methods of valuation is the most appropriate.
▪ In certain circumstances an unassisted party may be awarded costs from the legal aid fund if his opponent is legally aided.
▪ In certain circumstances public law proceedings may be commenced in a county court care centre.
▪ The tragic sky is the only thing that can be appealed to in certain circumstances.
death
▪ If they stayed in the war zone they would face almost certain death.
▪ But if he could not kill them outright, he could put them in the way of tolerably certain death.
▪ The class had seen their friends carried off to a certain death.
▪ There they learned that they had barely escaped certain death.
▪ The ground loomed and certain death faced them in a matter of seconds.
▪ Both heroes fought under the shadow of certain death.
▪ He landed wheels-up on the sandbank and he and all the crew escaped certain death.
▪ Would you try to avoid her and drive off to certain death, or would you keep going and kill her?
degree
▪ It is suggested, therefore, that piecemeal reform has to be treated with a certain degree of caution.
▪ Rehearsals over, a certain degree of moodiness or silly humor would overtake him.
▪ There has been a certain degree of controversy in recent years over the practice of self-investment by pension funds.
▪ To a certain degree, this was inevitable.
▪ In fact, they often find a certain degree of fellowship in acknowledging how much it all drives them crazy.
▪ Although inflation was invoked to make the universe smooth, it can provide a certain degree of clumpiness.
▪ To a certain degree, the rush to get on line boils down to simple economics.
extent
▪ The operational system appeared, to a certain extent, to be fairly regulated with highly structured and defined job descriptions.
▪ I felt that way about my boss to a certain extent.
▪ Other species of Ophiolebes species have a thickened skin covering the disk and to a certain extent the arm spines.
▪ Being knocked about to a certain extent.
▪ To a certain extent it still relies on your dropping the bait on the same line that your tackle is lying.
▪ To a certain extent, this charge was true.
▪ In addition, the organized networks could to a certain extent rely on intimidation and social pressure.
kind
▪ But as you've said, people tend to associate you with a certain kind of picture.
▪ Patrons can play certain kinds of poker and other games.
▪ On the other hand, a broader education may provide a better preparation for some jobs and certain kinds of research.
▪ Film confers a certain kind of knowledge; watching it, we take in the world with our eyes.
▪ In the ritual legal opera only certain kinds of song can be performed; only certain persons can sing.
▪ Fears, however, warn an organization against certain kinds of activity.
▪ This, too, is not unlike certain kinds of natural selection.
▪ We also believe that certain settings and certain kinds of support can help parents form these bonds and nurture their children successfully.
level
▪ But human negotiators are slow, and can cope with problems only up to a certain level of complexity.
▪ It would also test whether a certain level of complexity birthed self-sustainability.
▪ You get to a certain level and then you want to change everything in order to improve.
▪ Grant-aid was available, but only in houses with rates below a certain level.
▪ For many parents, of course, those words produce a certain level of dread.
▪ Stamina or endurance refers to your capacity to keep up a certain level of sustained exercise.
▪ At a certain level, people are beyond that.
number
▪ Both orders allow a certain number of new conditions to be imposed, again with reduced compensation being payable.
▪ Most plans include a monthly fee and a certain number of free minutes per month.
▪ Bob felt obliged to go and look at a certain number of these places out of politeness.
▪ Like the dominant party in a one-party state, Microsoft Corp. has engendered a certain number of discontents.
▪ A certain number of days are set aside throughout the session for non-governmental business.
▪ The contracts are structured as loans or, most commonly, as a direct purchases of a certain number of installments.
▪ It is interesting that certain numbers seem to occur frequently in folklore, particularly three, seven and nine.
▪ And, of course, there are only a certain number of people you can approach with that request.
people
▪ He's certain people will reject the idea.
▪ One of the functions of designating certain people as enemies is the bringing together of the rest of society.
▪ The Garden of Eden was the way certain people would describe any charming landscape.
▪ Only certain people are capable of achieving it; those people possessed of magnetic centre, about which we have already spoken.
▪ Does it only occur at work or social events or do certain people trigger it?
▪ They make it especially for Oktoberfest and certain people ask for it specifically.
▪ A central register of information blacklisted certain people, particularly those who passed bad cheques and placed fraudulent overseas orders.
▪ His was a low-key style, the sort certain people can sustain indefinitely.
point
▪ But inevitably, at a certain point, we turn to look at the Erechtheion, some way off.
▪ At a certain point, great big cockroaches no longer inspire that skin-crawling disgust.
▪ The sensitivity needed in this area calls for an emphasis on certain points before the more controversial ones are attempted.
▪ At a certain point, of course, bathing her in a rain of roses backfires.
▪ At certain points it can reach 10 feet but a few feet is more normal.
▪ To achieve efficiency, pruning of low-scoring readings may take place at certain points without greatly affecting the accuracy of the system.
▪ They say that at a certain point it will stop expanding and start contracting again, back into the original primal seed.
▪ At certain points in the machine of government the power of the king was still great.
sort
▪ Rather, the moral goodness was really the power to produce a certain sort of pleasing sensation in the observer.
▪ I shall view it as a principle that operates without any bias towards the emergence of certain sorts of organ.
▪ Now the company is hoping that iconoclasm is coming back into style - and a certain sort of iconoclasm at that.
▪ Where certain sorts of men marched in ahead of their wives.
▪ Equally, emotional attitudes may figure as standard causes of certain sorts of utterance.
▪ A certain sort of grimness came into my voice, as if expediency had now to take over.
▪ He could afford, he reckoned, to be relaxed about certain sorts of problem; namely those he privately labelled intractable.
▪ This made him very successful, since utterly trusted, with certain sorts of client.
things
▪ There are certain things that grate upon us.
▪ Society leads you to believe that certain things are taboo.
▪ I haven't bothered to explain certain things because, if I had, black people would have found it boring.
▪ There are certain things in life that have no meaning at all, that are destructive and out of the ordinary.
▪ Put very simply, in order to know anything we must assume certain things in faith.
▪ There are certain things that Blue can not possibly know at this point.
▪ Which would say certain things about Ewen Mackay.
▪ So, it's not my sport -- certain things appeal to certain people.
times
▪ It can be seen at certain times.
▪ Well, these dullish facts can mean a lot to certain individuals at certain times.
▪ You had to wear them at certain times.
▪ It is only the teachers who have at certain times a real stake in lying.
▪ One adds up the probabilities for all the particle histories with certain properties, such as passing through certain points at certain times.
▪ At certain times of the year, the Horns would also have framed the Sun in their graceful curve.
▪ Programmes can be deployed to meet urgent needs at certain times.
▪ Now, at certain times of day, sitting at his desk, Wyatt felt light-headed.
type
▪ Rather, individual studies have been made of certain types in the reports on the excavation of cemeteries.
▪ The debt crisis has made commercial banks and international donors wary of making certain types of investments.
▪ Includes comment on the factors that predispose certain types of household to become mobile.
▪ A man prefers a certain type of woman.
▪ It may be the case, as McClelland argues that this type of constraint requires a certain type of architecture.
▪ When both sides of the brain have some language ability, certain types of language disability seem to be more likely.
▪ At present, the filter only works on certain types of diesel engines.
▪ They sometimes include certain types of cousin and people related by marriage only.
way
▪ She was on her certain way into the civil service from the beginning.
▪ That can only be the case if these properties already include some dispositional properties, some properties to act in certain ways.
▪ There was a certain way of unloading timber which made the work quite straight forward.
▪ But the evidence for the average male brain differing in certain ways from the average female brain is now all but undeniable.
▪ From this viewpoint, we have to modify our analysis of the regulatory system in certain ways.
▪ The printer codes must be entered in a certain way during this process.
▪ How can pupils be categorized and what are the consequences of perceiving, labelling and responding to pupils in certain ways?
▪ They behave in certain ways, and there are moral implications to it.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
morally certain
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Are you certain you didn't leave your keys at home?
▪ As the results came in, it was now almost certain that Ken Livingstone would be the new Mayor of London.
▪ Coaches should be certain before they challenge a referee's decision.
▪ Computer prices will continue to fall - that's certain.
▪ Don't stop looking until you're absolutely certain you've found the place you want.
▪ He was certain about one thing - she would come back one day.
▪ Her business faces certain bankruptcy.
▪ Ignoring all warnings, the general led his men to certain death.
▪ Nobody knows exactly who built the manor, but it is certain that an architect called John Sturges supplied the drawings.
▪ She won't let you borrow the car - I'm certain of that.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Because the growing, feeding and slaughtering of kosher chickens are supervised by rabbis, all growers must meet certain standards.
▪ It is impossible to look at certain drawings without laughing.
▪ It is only in certain subjects - notably mathematics, technical subjects and physics - that boys do better than girls.
▪ The Minoans also regarded certain inanimate objects as incarnations of a deity.
▪ There will also be deep-seated reasons why certain types of behaviour elicit strong responses in others.
▪ You will see that generally a certain amount of light comes through.
II.pronounEXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ In certain ways Martha's good to work for, but she's really sarcastic.
▪ Some vegetables are only available at certain times of the year.
▪ There are certain things I just can't talk to my mother about.
▪ You have to be a certain height to go on some of the rides.