Impossible vs Certain - What's the difference?
impossible | certain |
Not possible; not able to be done or happen.
* 1865 , (Lewis Carroll), (w, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
* 13 March 1962 ,
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (colloquial, of a person) Very difficult to deal with.
(math, dated) imaginary
an impossibility
* Late 14th century': “Madame,” quod he, “this were an '''impossible !” — Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, ''Canterbury Tales
Sure, positive, not doubting.
(obsolete) Determined; resolved.
* Milton
Not to be doubted or denied; established as a fact.
* Bible, Dan. ii. 45
Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable.
* Dryden
* Shakespeare
Unfailing; infallible.
* Mead
Fixed or stated; regular; determinate.
* Bible, Ex. xvi. 4
Not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; sometimes used independently as a noun, and meaning certain persons.
* Bible, Luke v. 12
* Macaulay
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
* , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
, chapter=3
As adjectives the difference between impossible and certain
is that impossible is not possible; not able to be done or happen while certain is certain.As a noun impossible
is an impossibility.impossible
English
Alternative forms
* inpossible (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- Nothing is impossible , only impassible.
- Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
Our banks are out of control, passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible , there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.}}
- impossible quantities, or imaginary numbers
Synonyms
* (l) (rare)Antonyms
* (not able to be done or happen) possible, inevitableNoun
(en noun)Statistics
* ----certain
English
Adjective
(wikipedia certain) (en adjective)- I was certain of my decision.
- However, I with thee have fixed my lot, / Certain to undergo like doom.
- The dream is certain , and the interpretation thereof sure.
- Bankruptcy is the certain outcome of your constant gambling and lending.
- Virtue that directs our ways / Through certain dangers to uncertain praise.
- Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all.
- I have often wished that I knew as certain a remedy for any other distemper.
- The people go out and gather a certain rate every day.
- It came to pass when he was in a certain city.
- About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace and decorum.
Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* (not doubting) uncertain * (sure to happen) impossible, incidentalDerived terms
* certainlyDeterminer
(en determiner)- Certain of the Jews banded together.
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.”}}