| n. | 1. | The quality or state of being uncertain. |
| 2. | That which is uncertain; something unknown. |
| Noun | 1. | uncertainty - being unsettled or in doubt; "the uncertainty of the outcome" Synonyms: uncertainness Antonyms: sure thing, certainty, foregone conclusion - something that is certain; "his victory is a certainty" |
| 2. | uncertainty - the state of being unsure of something Antonyms: certainty - the state of being certain; "his certainty reassured the others" |
CERTAINTY, UNCERTAINTY, contracts. In matters of obligation, a thing is
certain, when its essence, quality, and quantity, are described, distinctly
set forth, Dig. 12, 1, 6. It is uncertain, when the description is not that
of one individual object, but designates only the kind. Louis. Code, art.
3522, No. 8 5 Co. 121. Certainty is the mother of repose, and therefore the
law aims at certainty. 1 Dick. 245. Act of the 27th of July, 1789, ii. 2, 1
Story's Laws, 6. His compensation for his servicer, shall not exceed two
thousand dollars per annum. Gordon's Dig. art. 211.
2. If a contract be so vague in its terms, that its meaning cannot be
certainly collected, and the statute of frauds preclude the admissibility of
parol evidence to clear up the difficulty; 5 Barn. & Cr. 588; S. C. 12 Eng.
Com. L. R. 827; or parol evidence cannot supply the defect, then neither at
law, nor in equity, can effect be given to it. 1 Russ. & M. 116; 1 Ch. Pr.
123.
3. It is a maxim of law, that, that is certain which may be made
certain; certum est quod certum reddi potest Co. Litt. 43; for example, when
a man sells the oil he has in his store at so much a gallon, although there
is uncertainty as to the quantity of oil, yet inasmuch as it can be
ascertained, the maxim applies, and the sale is good. Vide generally, Story,
Eq. El. Sec. 240 to 256; Mitf. Pl. by Jeremy, 41; Coop. Eq. Pl. 5; Wigr. on
Disc. 77.
UNCERTAINTY. That which is unknown or vague. Vide Certainty.
Pyrrhonism, accidentality, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, agitation, ambiguousness, ambitendency, ambivalence, amphibology, anxiety, apprehension, arrhythmia, bleariness, blur, blurriness, bother, break, brokenness, calculated risk, capriciousness, casualness, chance, chanciness, change of mind, changeableness, choppiness, cliff-hanging, complexity of meaning, concern, criticalness, darkness, defocus, delicacy, destiny, desultoriness, deviability, diffidence, dimness, disconnectedness, discontinuity, disquiet, distress, distrustfulness, double entendre, double meaning, double reference, double-mindedness, doubtfulness, dread, dubiety, dubiousness, eccentricity, equivocacy, equivocality, equivocalness, erraticism, erraticness, expectant waiting, faintness, fate, feebleness, fence-sitting, fence-straddling, fibrillation, fickleness, filminess, fitfulness, fits and starts, flier, flightiness, fluctuation, flukiness, fogginess, fortuitousness, fortuity, fortune, freakishness, fuzziness, gamble, good fortune, good luck, half-belief, half-visibility, hap, happenstance, happy chance, hazard, hazardousness, haziness, heedless hap, how they fall, impulsiveness, incertitude, inconsistency, inconstancy, indecision, indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indeterminacy, indeterminateness, indistinctness, indistinguishability, infirmity of purpose, insecurity, instability, intermittence, irony, irregularity, irresolution, jerkiness, law of averages, leeriness, levels of meaning, lot, low profile, luck, mercuriality, misdoubt, misgiving, mistiness, mistrust, mistrustfulness, moira, moodiness, mugwumpery, mugwumpism, multivocality, opportunity, paleness, paronomasia, patchiness, perilousness, perturbation, pessimism, play, plunge, polysemousness, polysemy, precariousness, principle of indeterminacy, probability, problematicness, punning, query, question, random sample, reserve, restlessness, richness of meaning, risk, riskiness, roughness, run of luck, salt, scrupulousness, second thoughts, self-doubt, semivisibility, serendipity, shadow of doubt, shadowiness, shakiness, shiftiness, skepticalness, slipperiness, soft focus, spasticity, speculation, sporadicity, sporadicness, spottiness, stagger, statistical probability, suspiciousness, sword of Damocles, tergiversation, the breaks, theory of probability, ticklish business, ticklishness, total skepticism, totteriness, touchiness, trouble, uncertainty principle, unclearness, undecidedness, undependability, undeterminedness, uneasiness, unevenness, unfixedness, unhealthiness, unmethodicalness, unplainness, unpredictability, unreliability, unsafeness, unsettledness, unsettlement, unsoundness, unstableness, unsteadfastness, unsteadiness, unsureness, unsystematicness, untrustworthiness, vague appearance, vagueness, variability, variation, variety, venture, waiting, wantonness, wariness, waywardness, weakness, whatever comes, whimsicality, wobble, wonder, worry