certain

certain adj

1 positive, *sure, cocksure

Analogous words: *confident, assured, sanguine

Antonyms: uncertain

Contrasted words: *doubtful, dubious, questionable

2 Certain, inevitable, necessary are comparable when they mean bound to follow in obedience to the laws of nature or of thought.

What is certain does not admit of being described as probable even in the highest conceivable degree and is beyond question or dispute

{

death is the only future event we can regard as certain

}

{

it is certain that effects must have a cause— Bp. Butler

}

What is inevitable (see also INEVITABLE) is as it must be (sometimes should be) according to some unchangeable law (as of nature, of logic, or of beauty). Inevitable often carries little suggestion of unavoidability but stresses finality (as in truth or Tightness) or an ultimate character (as perfection)

{

the results obtained in an actual experiment . . . seem nonsensical . . . when we picture light as bullets, but perfectly natural and inevitable when we picture it as waves— Jeans

}

{

the design is, indeed, so happy, so right, that it seems inevitable; the design is the story and the story is the design— Cather

}

What is necessary is logically or naturally inevitable and cannot be denied without resulting contradiction or frustration

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most of the distinctions of law are distinctions of degree. If the states had any power it was assumed that they had all power and that the necessary alternative was to deny it altogether— Justice Holmes

}

{

his plays are the necessary expression of his mind and character, not the necessary conditions of his existence— Inge

}

Antonyms: probable: supposed

Contrasted words: possible, likely (see PROBABLE): precarious (see DANGEROUS)