certainty

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Confidence in being right

Nouns

1. certainty, certitude, confidence, sureness, conviction, surety, assurance, faith; dead or moral certainty; positiveness, assuredness; self-confidence, -reliance, or -assurance; dogmatism, absolutism, pontification; undeniability, irrefutability, infallibility, reliability; necessity. See truth, belief.

2. confirmation, certification, verification, corroboration (See evidence).

3. (one who is certain) dogmatist, doctrinaire, bigot, opinionist, Sir Oracle.

4. (something certain) [proven] fact, matter of fact; affirmation; fait accompli; ipse dixit; guarantee. Informal, shoo-in, sure thing, [lead-pipe] cinch, open-and-shut case.

Verbs

1. be certain, stand to reason, admit of no doubt, go without saying; render certain, ensure, insure, assure, clinch, make sure; determine, ascertain, decide, settle; fix, button, or nail down; set at rest, make assurance or doubly sure; convince, persuade.

2. be confident, know for certain, have no doubt; go without saying. Informal, bet [the ranch, etc. ] on.

3. (act out of certainty) dogmatize, pontificate, lay down the law, make no bones about; bet one's bottom dollar, one's life, or one's boots; know like a book or like the back of one's hand; know [for certain].

4. make certain or sure, establish, determine; confirm, certify, verify, corroborate, [double-]check.

Adjectives

1. certain, sure, assured; solid, well-founded; unqualified, absolute, positive, determinate, definite, clear, unequivocal, categorical, unmistakable, cut-and-dried, black-and-white, decisive, decided, on ice, sewed up, ascertained, known, proven. Informal, sure as fate, sure as death and taxes, sure as shooting, open-and-shut, sure as God made little green apples. Slang, on ice, in the bag, clinched, cinched.

2. inevitable, unavoidable; utter; unchangeable; to be depended on, trustworthy, reliable; bound.

3. (factual) unimpeachable, undeniable, unquestionable, indisputable, incontestable, incontrovertible, indubitable; irrefutable, conclusive, without power of appeal; beyond a doubt, without question, beyond a shadow of a doubt; past dispute, beyond [all] question; undoubted, doubtless; clear as day, crystal-clear, evident.

4. (expressing certainty) assertive, dogmatic; opinionated, bigoted, doctrinaire; authoritative, authentic, official, magisterial, ex cathedra (See authority); unerring, infallible; straight from the horse's mouth.

Adverbs — certainly, for certain, for sure, certes, sure, no doubt, doubtless, by all odds; and no mistake, sure enough, to be sure, of course, as a matter of course; at any rate, at all events; without fail, come what may or will, sink or swim, rain or shine; sight unseen; truly (See truth), no question, as sure as eggs is eggs.

Phrases — that's for sure; that goes without saying; nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Quotations — My mind is not a bed to be made and remade (James Agate), Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right (Laurens van der Post), The Power of Positive Thinking (Norman Vincent Peale).

Antonyms, See doubt, qualification.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Firmness of belief]

Syn. certitude, assurance, conviction, confidence, sureness, faith, positiveness, definiteness, authoritativeness, firmness, persuasion, surety, self-confidence, self-assurance, cocksureness, indisputability, incontestability, irrefutability, unquestionableness; see also belief 1 , faith 1 .

2. [Something looked upon as certain]

Syn. fact, truth, foregone conclusion, sure thing*; see fact 1 , reality 1 , result , truth 1 .

Syn.- certainty suggests a firm, settled belief or positiveness in the truth of something; certitude is sometimes distinguished from the preceding as implying an absence of objective proof, hence suggesting unassailable blind faith; assurance suggests confidence, but not necessarily positiveness, usually in something that is yet to happen [ feel no assurance of his continuing support ] ; conviction suggests a being convinced, as of the truth of a belief, because of satisfactory reasons or proof and sometimes implies earlier doubt

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. conviction authority, certitude, confidence, assurance, infallibility.

2. fact truth, reality, *sure thing, *sure bet, actuality, *lock.

ANT.: 1. doubt, skepticism. 2. uncertainty, fantasy, unknown

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The fact or condition of being without doubt: assurance, assuredness, certitude, confidence, conviction, positiveness, sureness, surety. See CERTAIN. 2. A clearly established fact: cinch, sure thing. See CERTAIN, TRUE.