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What is "certainty"

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certainty
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
certainty
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
absolute
▪ For they know with absolute certainty that one day it will come.
▪ There was absolute certainty in his voice.
▪ The threat to truth as the goal of science is not just a threat to absolute certainty.
▪ They were up against the absolute certainty of guilt expressed by all the parties weighed against them.
▪ That is, the position of a particle could not be defined with absolute certainty, but only by statistical probability.
▪ He had to have absolute certainty.
▪ An absolute certainty that no-one wishes you harm.
▪ I did not know what I wanted to be but knew with absolute certainty what I did not want to be.
complete
▪ This notion is based on the assumption of a perfect financial market, with perfect knowledge and complete certainty about the future.
▪ That there will at some unknown point in the future be such a crisis is a complete certainty.
▪ It may be said at once that these questions can not be answered with complete certainty.
great
▪ A fixed-price offer gives issuers greater certainty and intermediaries lower fees.
▪ Within those areas covered by the rational basis part of the test there would be greater certainty.
▪ Facilities such as these will allow the engineer to possibly gain deeper systems understanding and through this obtain greater diagnostic certainty.
▪ The system encourages good government-the difficulty of reversing a commitment can mean a greater certainty and clarity about trading conditions.
▪ Creggan suddenly felt strength and great certainty.
▪ Where human life is at stake, a much greater degree of certainty is required.
high
▪ It offers both traders and customers a high level of certainty as to exactly what is on offer.
▪ A high degree of certainty permits a high structure.
mathematical
▪ We can possess a mathematical certainty that two and two make four, but this rarely matters to us.
moral
▪ What is most striking, however, is the way the play keeps subverting our moral certainties.
▪ He has equipped him, too, with a moral certainty which the Rat recognises and envies.
▪ Yet the political and moral certainties of the old polarities have dissolved.
▪ Their telling and retelling relay important principles of hope rooted in political and moral certainties about the outcome of struggle.
▪ An almost frightening moral certainty swept over it and began to soothe its pain.
old
▪ As a stake in society comes in at a higher cost, the old certainties begin to wither.
▪ No matter how partners parent, children introduce the kind of emotional strain that can shatter old harmonies and certainties.
▪ The experience of New Labour in office has dented old certainties.
▪ All that is certain is that the old certainty no longer exists.
▪ The old clear-cut certainties dissolved into an indeterminate haze.
only
▪ The only certainty was that she had a few seconds to act.
▪ As we approach the millennium the only certainty is change, and lots of it.
▪ But whatever happens, the only certainty is that the crags will never change.
▪ The only certainty in this airline shake-out is that, ultimately, it is going to cost the traveller a lot.
▪ We all know that, however much we may try to deter it, death is the only certainty.
reasonable
▪ Other individual fluctuations can be assigned to specific causes with reasonable certainty.
▪ This would allow a pollution sample to be matched with reasonable certainty to its source.
virtual
▪ It can already be said with virtual certainty that lamb will never be as cheap again.
▪ Raymond Burns and the vastly experienced Garth McGimpsey must be considered virtual certainties.
■ VERB
establish
▪ When the basic concepts have been established the assumption of certainty will be removed.
▪ This diagnosis can be established with certainty only by testing the cerebrospinal fluid.
feel
▪ Had felt the overpowering certainty of the man behind the words and, again, recognised the echo in himself.
▪ I remember that I felt astonished at her certainty.
▪ She felt, with a certainty she couldn't explain, that he had called her here, and for some purpose.
▪ He felt the certainty of it.
▪ One by one, she felt her certainties crumble to dust.
▪ He felt it was a certainty.
▪ In the warm sunlight, I feel with certainty that my world is expanding and my mind with it.
know
▪ First, it entails defining the site's boundaries beforehand, and these are not always known with certainty.
▪ They needed to know, with enough certainty to avoid embarrassment, inconvenience, and lawsuits when the building was completed.
▪ He knew it for a certainty.
▪ For they know with absolute certainty that one day it will come.
▪ In contrast, the future spot price can not be known with certainty precisely because it is a future price.
▪ Is there anything that we can really know with certainty?
▪ But she knew with bleak certainty that, once she'd left it, she would never, ever come back.
▪ He was not saying merely that you believed it, but that you could know it as certainty!
predict
▪ In many cases it may be impossible to predict with certainty whether or not a particular clause will be effective.
▪ It is therefore impossible to predict with certainty what amount of supplementation will result in what increment in the serum phosphate concentration.
▪ Very little has been discovered of the gates, although their sites can be predicted with tolerable certainty.
▪ One would like the additional information to be conclusive so that the success or failure of the project could be predicted with certainty.
said
▪ It can already be said with virtual certainty that lamb will never be as cheap again.
▪ The one thing that can be said with certainty about mildew is that it is unpredictable.
seem
▪ It has seemed a certainty to me from the beginning; the decision of the Council is tomorrow.
▪ In Barcelona, gold seemed a certainty.
▪ Tragically, it seems a deadly certainty that the region will dissolve into war.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
mathematical certainty
▪ We can possess a mathematical certainty that two and two make four, but this rarely matters to us.
practical certainty/disaster/sell-out etc
▪ It was a practical certainty that he would be trying to raise more loans long before these were ever repaid.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Further job cutbacks are a certainty.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It is also wiser not to treat every offer as an 18-carat-gold certainty.
▪ On the other hand, we can never possess such a certainty that some one loves us.
▪ Patrick Gabriel had brought corruption, disturbing order, shaking the certainties that Quex needed.
▪ The theological certainties he found in others intrigued, but never convinced Eyre.
▪ This diagnosis can be established with certainty only by testing the cerebrospinal fluid.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Certainty

Certainty \Cer"tain*ty\, n.; pl. Certainties. [OF. certainet['e].]

  1. The quality, state, or condition, of being certain.

    The certainty of punishment is the truest security against crimes.
    --Fisher Ames.

  2. A fact or truth unquestionable established.

    Certainties are uninteresting and sating.
    --Landor.

  3. (Law) Clearness; freedom from ambiguity; lucidity.

    Of a certainty, certainly.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
certainty

c.1300, certeynte, "surety, pledge," from Anglo-French certeinté (late 13c.), Old French certainete "certainty," from Latin or Vulgar Latin *certanitatem (source of Old Spanish certanedad); see certain. Meaning "that which is certain" is attested from early 14c.; meaning "quality of being certain" is from mid-14c.

Wiktionary
certainty

n. 1 The state of being certain. 2 An instance of being certain. 3 A fact or truth unquestionably established.

Related phrases:
WordNet
certainty

  1. n. the state of being certain; "his certainty reassured the others" [ant: doubt]

  2. something that is certain; "his victory is a certainty" [syn: sure thing, foregone conclusion] [ant: uncertainty]

Wikipedia
Certainty

Certainty is perfect knowledge that has total security from error, or the mental state of being without doubt.

Objectively defined, certainty is total continuity and validity of all foundational inquiry, to the highest degree of precision. Something is certain only if no skepticism can occur. Philosophy (at least, historical Cartesian philosophy) seeks this state.

It is widely held that certainty about the real world is a failed historical enterprise (that is, beyond deductive truths, tautology, etc.). This is in large part due to the power of David Hume's problem of induction. Physicist Carlo Rovelli adds that certainty, in real life, is useless or often damaging (the idea is that "total security from error" is impossible in practice, and a complete "lack of doubt" is undesirable).

Certainty (film)

Certainty is a 2011 drama film directed by Peter Askin, produced by Will Battersby, Per Melita and Mike O'Malley and written by Mike O'Malley. The cast includes newcomers Tom Lipinski, Adelaide Clemens, Kristen Connolly and Will Rogers alongside veterans Valerie Harper, Bobby Moynihan and Giancarlo Esposito. The film was produced by Will Battersby, Per Melita and O'Malley.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "certainty".

Here was a world of simplicity and certainty no acidhead, no revolutionary anarchist would ever find, a world based on the one and zero of life and death.

If one way, the one-in-five will become one-in-four, one-in-three, and so on until it becomes one-in-one and a minute fraction, which will be close enough to affirmative certainty so that you will say you know that I killed Orchard.

It appears to me, as I have said elsewhere, that first of all public opinion should be aroused, not so much to condemn all experimentation upon animals, as to know with certainty the facts about it.

I can say with certainty is that I awoke suddenly to find that I was being carried along a panelled corridor to the accompaniment of hushed voices.

The older man with the bandana, who looked as if he was in charge, seemed to pick up on it too and eyed Sam with less certainty than the situation would appear to have warranted.

She rang for the footman and in the transport of her fever she found strength to write the following letter, for she was mastered by one mad desire--to have certainty:-- To Madame la Baronne du Guenic: Dear Mamma,--When you come to Paris, as you allow us to hope you will, I shall thank you in person for the beautiful present by which you and my aunt Zephirine and Calyste wish to reward me for doing my duty.

So now as he stood rubbing his hands it was in the absolute certainty that in just a few more seconds one of the footmen would appear between the tapestry portieres bearing aloft a silver tray with the tea things, and then Bibby would come in with the paper, and presently Mrs.

Harcourt joined them a trifle breathlessly, eyes riveted upwards to the sparkling flashes now approaching with deadly certainty.

I have seen men who could with certainty, at this distance, hit a bird the size of a pigeon sitting on the top of that target, twenty times in succession, and think it by no means extraordinary shooting.

Cilghal looked away with her big Calamarian eyes, but Han answered with grim certainty.

Can it really be said with certainty that the Calaveras skull was either genuine or a hoax?

She stopped abruptly, embarrassed by her own passion and her own lack of certainty, and saw Callier relax.

I may predict with some certainty that before long we shall find the original Darwinism of Dr.

By Thy glory, I know of a certainty that Thou wilt not withhold Thyself from that which Thou hast commanded Thy servants, nor wilt Thou deprive him that hath clung to the cord of Thy bounty and hath ascended to the Dayspring of Thy wealth.

What could be said with certainty to contradict his perfectly reasonable and plausible claim of having driven from Deauville to Paris?