uncertainty

[ uhn-sur-tn-tee ]

/ ʌnˈsɜr tn ti /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR uncertainty ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural un·cer·tain·ties for 2.

the state of being uncertain; doubt; hesitancy: His uncertainty gave impetus to his inquiry.

an instance of uncertainty, doubt, etc.

unpredictability; indeterminacy; indefiniteness.

Nearby words

Origin of uncertainty

1350–1400; Middle English uncerteynte; see un-¹, certainty

SYNONYMS FOR uncertainty

1. hesitation, irresolution, indecision, ambivalence.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR uncertainty ON THESAURUS.COM

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for uncertainty

New York blinks in the face of uncertainty and bans hydraulic fracturing.
New York’s Conservative Fracking Ban|Jay Michaelson|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But for me, this admittance of uncertainty and doubts grounds Serial in reality.
Adnan Killed Her! No, Jay Did It! Serial’s Uncertain, True-to-Reality End|Emily Shire|December 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His Canon camera dangled by his side and the feeling of uncertainty over what he could now report punctuated everything he said.
Turkey Arrests Journalists in Crackdown|Jesse Rosenfeld|December 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Kundera sees fiction as a realm of many partial truths, its only certainty “the wisdom of uncertainty.”
The Birth of the Novel|Nick Romeo|November 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST

If the certainty of the wisdom of uncertainty is itself uncertain, the force of the definition crumbles by logical standards.
The Birth of the Novel|Nick Romeo|November 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The person stopped where the road branched off, as if in uncertainty which to take.
Hurricane Hurry|W.H.G. Kingston
The one, rich and full though accompanied perhaps by pain and even denial at times; the other fraught with uncertainty.
When Dreams Come True|Ritter Brown
This uncertainty seems to indicate a certain superficiality in the ordinary empirical way of looking at evolution.
On the Ethics of Naturalism|William Ritchie Sorley
This uncertainty made a most feverish moment on board the Proserpine, as she came up fast toward the headland.
The Wing-and-Wing|J. Fenimore Cooper
The mere admission of such changes may suffice to indicate the doubt and uncertainty which attend enquiries of this nature.
Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.|Sir James George Frazer

British Dictionary definitions for uncertainty

uncertainty

/ (ʌnˈsɜːtəntɪ) /

noun plural -ties

Also called: uncertainness the state or condition of being uncertain

an uncertain matter, contingency, etc

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for uncertainty