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.

2. (obsolete) Determined; resolved.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 8”, 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:

     However, I with thee have fixed my lot, / Certain to undergo 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:

     The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

4. Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable.

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

   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, OCLC 228724395, (please specify the page number):

     How vain is virtue which directs our ways / Through certain danger to uncertain praise.

   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all.

5. Unfailing; infallible.
   • 1702, Richard Mead, Mechanical Account of Poisons
6. I have often wished , that I knew so certain a remedy in any other disease
7. Fixed or stated; regular; determinate.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Exodus 16:4:

     The people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day.

8. 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:

     It came to pass when he was in a certain city.

   • 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:

     About everything he wrote 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.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎^[1]:

     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.”

   Certain people are good at running.

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, Bible (King James Version), Acts xxiii. 12

     Certain of the Jews 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^[2]:

     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, The Century Co., New York, 1911.

アナグラム

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