uncertainty

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: un=cer=tain=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

uncertainty, n. 

•  The quality or state of being uncertain.  [1913 Webster]
•  That which is uncertain; something unknown.  [1913 Webster]

  "Our shepherd's case is every man's case that quits a moral certainty for an uncertainty."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

uncertainty, n. (pl. -ies)
1 the fact or condition of being uncertain.
2 an uncertain matter or circumstance.

Idiom

uncertainty principle (in full Heisenberg uncertainty principle after W. Heisenberg, Ger. physicist d. 1976) Physics the principle that the momentum and position of a particle cannot both be precisely determined at the same time.

THESAURUS

uncertainty

Pyrrhonism, accidentality, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, agitation, ambiguity, 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, distrust, distrustfulness, double entendre, double meaning, double reference, double-mindedness, doubt, 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, hesitation, 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, scruple, scrupulousness, second thoughts, self-doubt, semivisibility, serendipity, shadow of doubt, shadowiness, shakiness, shiftiness, skepticalness, skepticism, slipperiness, soft focus, spasticity, speculation, sporadicity, sporadicness, spottiness, stagger, statistical probability, suspense, suspicion, 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

ROGET THESAURUS

uncertainty

Irresolution

N irresolution, infirmity of purpose, indecision, indetermination, undetermination, unsettlement, uncertainty, demur, suspense, hesitating, hesitation, hesitancy, vacillation, changeableness, fluctuation, alternation, caprice, fickleness, levity, legerete, pliancy, weakness, timidity, cowardice, half measures, waverer, ass between two bundles of hay, shuttlecock, butterfly, wimp, doughface, irresolute, infirm of purpose, double-minded, half-hearted, undecided, unresolved, undetermined, shilly-shally, fidgety, tremulous, hesitating, off one's balance, at a loss, vacillating, unsteady, unsteadfast, fickle, without ballast, capricious, volatile, frothy, light, lightsome, light-minded, giddy, fast and loose, weak, feeble-minded, frail, timid, wimpish, wimpy, cowardly, dough-faced, facile, pliant, unable to say 'no', easy-going revocable, reversible, irresolutely, irresolved, irresolvedly, in faltering accents, off and on, from pillar to post, seesaw, Int, how happy could I be with either!.

Chance

N chance, lot, fate, luck, good luck, mascot, speculation, venture, stake, game of chance, mere shot, random shot, blind bargain, leap in the dark, pig in a poke, fluke, potluck, faro bank, flyer, limit, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, drawing lots, sortilegy, sortition, sortes, sortes Virgilianae, rouge et noir, hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo, craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing, heads or tails cross and pile, poker-dice, wager, bet, betting, gambling, the turf, gaming house, gambling house, betting house, bucket shop, gambling joint, totalizator, totalizer, hell, betting ring, dice, dice box, gambler, gamester, man of the turf, adventurer, dicer, fortuitous, unintentional, unintended, accidental, not meant, undesigned, purposed, unpremeditated, unforeseen, uncontemplated, never thought of, random, indiscriminate, promiscuous, undirected, aimless, driftless, designless, purposeless, causeless, without purpose, possible, unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey, randomly, by chance, fortuitously, unpredictably, unforeseeably, casually, unintentionally, unwittingly, en passant, by the way, incidentally, as it may happen, at random, at a venture, at haphazard, acierta errando, dextro tempore, fearful concatenation of circumstances, fortuitous combination of circumstances, le jeu est le fils d'avarice et le pere du desespo, the happy combination of fortuitous circumstances, the fortuitous or casual concourse of atoms, God does not play dice with the universe, chance, indetermination, accident, fortune, hazard, hap, haphazard, chance medley, random, luck, raccroc, casualty, contingence, adventure, hit, fate, equal chance, lottery, tombola, toss up, turn of the table, turn of the cards, hazard of the die, chapter of accidents, fickle finger of fate, cast of the dice, throw of the dice, heads or tails, flip of a coin, wheel of Fortune, sortes, sortes Virgilianae, probability, possibility, odds, long odds, run of luck, accidentalness, main chance, odds on, favorable odds, contingency, dependence (uncertainty), situation (circumstance), statistics, theory of Probabilities, theory of Chances, bookmaking, assurance, speculation, gaming, casual, fortuitous, accidental, adventitious, causeless, incidental, contingent, uncaused, undetermined, indeterminate, random, statistical, possible, unintentional, by chance, accidentally, by accident, casually, perchance, for aught one knows, as good would have it, as bad would have it, as luck would have it, as ill-luck would have it, as chance would have it, as it may be, as it may chance, as it may turn up, as it may happen, as the case may be, grasps the skirts of happy chance, the accident of an accident, There but for the grace of God go I.

Irregularity of recurrence

N irregularity of recurrence, irregularity, uncertainty, unpunctuality, fitfulness, capriciousness, ecrhythmus, irregular, uncertain, unpunctual, capricious, desultory, fitful, flickering, rambling, rhapsodical, spasmodic, immethodical, unmethodical, variable, irregularly, by fits and starts.

Indiscrimination

N indiscrimination, indistinguishability, indistinctness, indistinction, uncertainty, incomparability, indiscriminate, undistinguished, indistinguishable, undistinguishable, unmeasured, promiscuous, undiscriminating, valeat quantum valere potest.

Uncertainty

N uncertainty, incertitude, doubt, doubtfulness, dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy, dubitousness, hesitation, suspense, perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, bewilderment, timidity, vacillation, diaporesis, indetermination, vagueness, haze, fog, obscurity, ambiguity, contingency, dependence, dependency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility, open question, onus probandi, blind bargain, pig in a poke, leap in the dark, something or other, needle in a haystack, needle in a bottle of hay, roving commission, precariousness, fallibility, uncertain, casual, random, changeable, doubtful, dubious, indecisive, unsettled, undecided, undetermined, in suspense, open to discussion, controvertible, in question, vague, indeterminate, indefinite, ambiguous, equivocal, undefined, undefinable, confused, mystic, oracular, dazed, perplexing, enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical, experimental, unpredictable, unforeseeable (unknowable), fallible, questionable, precarious, slippery, ticklish, debatable, disputable, unreliable, untrustworthy, contingent, contingent on, dependent on, subject to, dependent on circumstances, occasional, provisional, unauthentic, unauthenticated, unauthoritative, unascertained, unconfirmed, undemonstrated, untold, uncounted, in a state of uncertainty, in a cloud, in a maze, bushed, off the track, ignorant, afraid to say, out of one's reckoning, astray, adrift, at sea, at fault, at a loss, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, puzzled, lost, abroad, d_esorient_e, distracted, distraught, pendente lite, sub spe rati, Heaven knows, who can tell? who shall decide when doctors disagr.

Unintelligibility

N unintelligibility, incomprehensibility, imperspicuity, inconceivableness, vagueness, obscurity, ambiguity, doubtful meaning, uncertainty, perplexity, spinosity, obscurum per obscurius, mystification, latency, transcendentalism, paradox, oxymoron, riddle, enigma, puzzle, diagnus vindice nodus, sealed book, steganography, freemasonry, pons asinorum, asses' bridge, high Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, jargon, unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable, incognizable, inexplicable, inscrutable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, insolvable, insoluble, impenetrable, illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical, enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret), indecipherable, obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery, opaque, dense, undiscernible, misty, hidden, latent, indefinite, garbled, perplexed, undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous, mysterious, mystic, mystical, acroamatic, acroamatical, metempirical, transcendental, occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed, inconceivable, inconceptible, searchless, above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension, beyond one's depth, unconceived, inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable, unpredictable, unforeseeable, it's Greek to me.