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Certain vs Peremptory - What's the difference?

certain | peremptory |

As adjectives the difference between certain and peremptory

is that certain is sure, positive, not doubting while peremptory is (legal) precluding debate or expostulation; not admitting of question or appeal; positive; absolute; decisive; conclusive; final.

As a determiner certain

is having been determined but unspecified 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

English

Adjective

(wikipedia certain) (en adjective)
  • Sure, positive, not doubting.
    • I was certain of my decision.
  • (obsolete) Determined; resolved.
  • * Milton
    • However, I with thee have fixed my lot, / Certain to undergo like doom.
  • Not to be doubted or denied; established as a fact.
  • * Bible, Dan. ii. 45
    • The dream is certain , and the interpretation thereof sure.
  • Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable.
    • Bankruptcy is the certain outcome of your constant gambling and lending.
  • * Dryden
    • Virtue that directs our ways / Through certain dangers to uncertain praise.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all.
  • Unfailing; infallible.
  • * Mead
    • I have often wished that I knew as certain a remedy for any other distemper.
  • Fixed or stated; regular; determinate.
  • * Bible, Ex. xvi. 4
    • The people go out and gather a certain rate every day.
  • Not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; sometimes used independently as a noun, and meaning certain persons.
  • * Bible, Luke v. 12
    • It came to pass when he was in a certain city.
  • * Macaulay
    • About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace and decorum.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * (not doubting) uncertain * (sure to happen) impossible, incidental

    Derived terms

    * certainly

    Related terms

    * certainty

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • Having been determined but unspecified. 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.
  • * Bible, Acts xxiii. 12
    • Certain of the Jews banded together.
  • * , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
    • , chapter=3 citation , passage=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.”}}

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    Anagrams

    * * 1000 English basic words ----

    peremptory

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (legal) Precluding debate or expostulation; not admitting of question or appeal; positive; absolute; decisive; conclusive; final.
  • * 1596 , Francis Bacon, Maxims of the Law , II:
    • there is no reason but if any of the outlawries be indeed without error, but it should be a peremptory plea to the person in a writ of error, as well as in any other action.
  • Positive in opinion or judgment; absolutely certain, overconfident, unwilling to hear any debate or argument (especially in a pejorative sense); dogmatic.
  • * 2003 , Andrew Marr, The Guardian , 6 Jan 03:
    • He marched under a placard reading "End Bossiness Now" but decided it was a little too peremptory , not quite British, so changed the slogan on subsequent badges, to "End Bossiness Soon."
  • (obsolete) Firmly determined, resolute; obstinate, stubborn.
  • Accepting no refusal or disagreement; imperious, dictatorial.
  • *
    • less surprising than that he had been depressed by a book. Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.
  • * 1999 , Anthony Howard, The Guardian , 2 Jan 99:
    • Though today (surveying that yellowing document) I shudder at the peremptory tone of the instructions I gave, Alastair - in that same volume in which I get chastised for my coverage of the Macmillan rally - was generous enough to remark that my memorandum became 'an office classic'.

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