certainとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

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 古期英語 ġewiss (“certain, sure”)) and alternative Middle English spelling sertane (“some, certain”)

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːtn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝtn̩/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝtən/, /ˈsɝtn̩/
• 韻: -ɜː(ɹ)tən
• ハイフネーション: cer‧tain

形容詞

certain (comparative more certain, superlative most certain)

1. Sure, positive, not doubting.

   I was certain of my decision.

   Spain is now certain of a place in the finals.

2. (obsolete) Determined; resolved.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 952–953:

     However I with thee have fixt my Lot, / Certain to undergoe like doom […]

3. Not to be doubted or denied; established as a fact.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Daniel 2:45, column 1:

     […] the dreame is certaine, and the interpretation thereof ſure.

4. Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable.

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

   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, OCLC 55178895, [Act III, scene ii]:

     […] death (as the Pſalmiſt ſaith) is certaine to all, all ſhall die.

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, OCLC 228724395, Act II, page 29:

     How vain is Virtue which directs our ways / Through certain danger to uncertain praiſe!

5. Unfailing; infallible.
   • 1702, Richard Mead, Mechanical Account of Poisons

     I have often wished, that I knew so certain a remedy in any other disease

6. Fixed or stated; regular; determinate.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Exodus 16:4, column 1:

     Then ſaid the Lord vnto Moſes, Behold, I will raine bread from heauen for you: and the people ſhall goe out, and gather a certaine rate euery day, that I may proue them, whether they will walke in my Law, or no.

7. Known but not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; sometimes used independently as a noun, and meaning certain persons; see also "one".
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 5:12, column 1:

     And it came to paſſe, when he was in a certaine citie […]

   • 1856 February​, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith [from the Encyclopædia Britannica]”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, OCLC 30956848, page 365:

     About everything that he wrote, serious or sportive, there was a certain natural grace and decorum […]

同意語

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

反意語

• (not doubting): uncertain
• (sure to happen): impossible, incidental
• (known but not named): particular specific

派生語

• certainly (adv)

関連する語

• certainty (n)

限定詞

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.

   Certain people are good at running.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071, page 26:

     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.”

代名詞

certain

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

   She mentioned a series of contracts, of which certain are not cited.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Acts 23:12, column 2:

     […] certaine of the Jewes banded together […]

同意語

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

名詞

certain pl (複数形 only)

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

     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.

Further reading

• 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.

アナグラム

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