Literary notes about certain (AI summary)
Writers employ "certain" as a flexible modifier that can mark specificity without complete disclosure. In works where it quantifies an indefinite number or quality—for instance, indicating an unspecified amount of poultry in a barn ([1]) or a discreet allocation of soldiers ([2])—the word functions to assert a measure without precision. At other times, it conveys an emotional or cognitive state: a character might feel sure yet imperfectly confident ([3], [4]), or authors might invoke it to lend a mysterious or formal tone in legal and philosophical discourse ([5], [6]). This varied use enriches the text by simultaneously defining and leaving open aspects of the narrative or argument.
- Thus, in every farm, the offals of the barn and stable will maintain a certain number of poultry.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - So he followed the Minister with a certain number of his soldiers.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano - But I don't feel certain of it with you; I never feel certain about anything with you .
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - But I feel certain that he does not understand it!
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Do not believe this; be certain that those who profess such a doctrine are practising themselves the deceit they condemn so much.
— from The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness by Florence Hartley - Our theory of truth, to begin with, supplies the possibility of distinguishing certain truths as self-evident in a sense which ensures infallibility.
— from The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
