"incertain" meaning in English

See incertain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Forms: more incertain [comparative], most incertain [superlative]
Etymology: From Middle English incertayne, borrowed from Middle French incertain, derived in the 14th c. from certain, after Latin incertus (“uncertain”). By surface analysis, in- + certain. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|incertayne}} Middle English incertayne, {{der|en|frm|incertain}} Middle French incertain, {{m|frm|certain}} certain, {{der|en|la|incertus||uncertain}} Latin incertus (“uncertain”), {{surf|en|in-|certain}} By surface analysis, in- + certain Head templates: {{en-adj}} incertain (comparative more incertain, superlative most incertain)
  1. (obsolete) Not certain, uncertain. Tags: obsolete Synonyms: uncertain, incertaine Related terms: incertitude
    Sense id: en-incertain-en-adj-FDONsT2Y Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms prefixed with in-

Download JSON data for incertain meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "incertayne"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English incertayne",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "frm",
        "3": "incertain"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle French incertain",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "frm",
        "2": "certain"
      },
      "expansion": "certain",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "incertus",
        "4": "",
        "5": "uncertain"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin incertus (“uncertain”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in-",
        "3": "certain"
      },
      "expansion": "By surface analysis, in- + certain",
      "name": "surf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English incertayne, borrowed from Middle French incertain, derived in the 14th c. from certain, after Latin incertus (“uncertain”). By surface analysis, in- + certain.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more incertain",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most incertain",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "incertain (comparative more incertain, superlative most incertain)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with in-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling",
          "text": "And again, that as these acquisitions are in themselves generally worthless, so are the means to attain them not only base and infamous, but at best incertain, and always full of danger.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Not certain, uncertain."
      ],
      "id": "en-incertain-en-adj-FDONsT2Y",
      "links": [
        [
          "certain",
          "certain"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) Not certain, uncertain."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "incertitude"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "uncertain"
        },
        {
          "word": "incertaine"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "incertain"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "incertayne"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English incertayne",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "frm",
        "3": "incertain"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle French incertain",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "frm",
        "2": "certain"
      },
      "expansion": "certain",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la",
        "3": "incertus",
        "4": "",
        "5": "uncertain"
      },
      "expansion": "Latin incertus (“uncertain”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in-",
        "3": "certain"
      },
      "expansion": "By surface analysis, in- + certain",
      "name": "surf"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English incertayne, borrowed from Middle French incertain, derived in the 14th c. from certain, after Latin incertus (“uncertain”). By surface analysis, in- + certain.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more incertain",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most incertain",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "incertain (comparative more incertain, superlative most incertain)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "incertitude"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English terms derived from Latin",
        "English terms derived from Middle English",
        "English terms derived from Middle French",
        "English terms inherited from Middle English",
        "English terms prefixed with in-",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling",
          "text": "And again, that as these acquisitions are in themselves generally worthless, so are the means to attain them not only base and infamous, but at best incertain, and always full of danger.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Not certain, uncertain."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "certain",
          "certain"
        ],
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) Not certain, uncertain."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "uncertain"
    },
    {
      "word": "incertaine"
    }
  ],
  "word": "incertain"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.