• (RP) IPA: /ˈsɜːtn̩/
• (America) IPA: /ˈsɝtn̩/
• (Canada) IPA: /ˈsɝtən/, /ˈsɝtn̩/

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: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], 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), imprinted at London: By 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.

   • Virtue that directs our ways / Through certain dangers 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.

   • I have often wished that I knew as certain a remedy for any other distemper.

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

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

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

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

   • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Goldsmith,_Oliver Goldsmith, Oliver]”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:

     About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace and decorum.

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

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

• certainty (n)

• French: certain
• German: gewiss, sicher
• Italian: certo, sicuro
• Portuguese: certo
• Russian: уве́ренный
• Spanish: cierto

• French: certain, quelconque
• German: gewiss, irgendein
• Italian: certo, tale
• Russian: не́который
• Spanish: cierto

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.

• French: certain
• German: bestimmt, gewiss
• Portuguese: certo
• Russian: не́который
• Spanish: cierto, cierta

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

   There were serious objections to certain of the proposals.

   • Bible, Acts xxiii. 12

     Certain of the Jews banded together.

• (unnamed or undescribed members (of)) some#Pronoun|some

1. (with "the") Something certain.

1. Surname