| Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922. |
| Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual Faculties |
| Division (I) Formation of Ideas |
| Section III. Materials for Reasoning |
| 475. Uncertainty. |
| NOUN: | UNCERTAINTY, incertitude, doubt; doubtfulness &c. adj.; dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy [obs.], dubiosity, dubiousness. HESITATION, suspense, state of suspense; perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, Morton’s fork [hist.], bewilderment; botheration [colloq.]; puzzle, quandary; timidity (fear) [See Fear]; vacillation [See Irresolution]; aporia, diaporesis, indetermination; sealed orders. VAGUENESS &c. adj.; haze, fog; obscurity (darkness) [See Darkness]; ambiguity (double meaning) [See Equivocalness]; contingency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility; open question (question) [See Inquiry]; onus probandi [L.], blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark, something or other; needle in a bottle of hay; roving commission. FALLIBILITY; unreliability, unreliableness, untrustworthiness; precariousness &c. adj. |
| VERB: | BE UNCERTAIN &c. adj.; wonder whether. lose the -clew or clue, - scent; miss one’s way, wander aimlessly, beat about, hang around. not know -what to make of (unintelligibility) [See Unintelligibility], - which way to turn, - whether one stands on one’s head or one’s heels; float in a sea of doubt, hesitate, flounder; lose oneself, lose one’s head; muddle one’s brains. RENDER UNCERTAIN &c. adj.; put out, pose, puzzle, perplex, embarrass; muddle, confuse, confound; bewilder, bother, moider [dial.], rattle [colloq.], nonplus, addle the wits, throw off the scent, keep in suspense, keep one guessing. DOUBT, (disbelieve) [See Unbelief. Doubt]; hang in the balance, tremble in the balance; depend. |
| ADJECTIVE: | UNCERTAIN, unsure; casual; random (aimless) [See Chance]; changeable, changeful [See Changeableness]. DOUBTFUL, dubious; dazed; insecure, unstable, indecisive; unsettled, undecided, undetermined; in suspense, open to discussion; controvertible; in question (inquiry) [See Inquiry]. VAGUE; indeterminate, indefinite; ambiguous, equivocal; undefined, undefinable, confused (indistinct) [See Invisibility]; mysterious, cryptic, veiled, obscure, oracular. PERPLEXING &c. v.; enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical; experimental [See Experiment]. FALLIBLE, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable; unreliable, untrustworthy. UNAUTHENTIC, unauthenticated, unauthoritative; unascertained, unconfirmed; undemonstrated; untold, uncounted. CONTINGENT, contingent on, dependent on; subject to; dependent on circumstances; occasional; provisional. in a state of uncertainty, on the horns of a dilemma, in a cloud, in a maze; bushed, off the track; derailed; ignorant [See Ignorance]; afraid to say; out of one’s reckoning, out of one’s bearings, astray, adrift; at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one’s wit’s end, at a non-plus; puzzled &c. v.; lost, abroad, désorienté [F.]; distracted, distraught. |
| ADVERB: | UNCERTAINLY &c. adj.; at random, until things straighten out, while things are so uncertain, in this state of suspense; pendente lite [L.]; sub spe rati [L.]. |
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