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Certain vs Possibility - What's the difference?

certain | possibility |

As an adjective certain

is certain.

As a noun possibility is

the quality of being possible.

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

    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.”}}

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * * 1000 English basic words ----

    possibility

    English

    Noun

    (possibilities)
  • The quality of being possible.
  • A thing possible; that which may take place or come into being.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}
  • An option or choice, usually used in context with future events.
  • Synonyms

    * option * choice * contingency * See also

    Antonyms

    * impossibility

    Derived terms

    * logical possibility * possibility theory