Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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.].
   QUOTATIONS:

1. Heaven knows.
2. Who can tell?
3. Who shall decide when doctors disagree?
4. Spargere voces in vulgum ambiguas.—Vergil
5. He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.—Johnson
6. A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.—Bacon
7. Dum in dubio est animus paulo momento huc illuc impellitur.—Terence
8. To-morrow is, ah, whose?—Mulock
9. Unborn To-morrow and dead Yesterday.—Omar Khayyám—Fitzgerald
10. Gather ye rose-buds while ye may.—Herrick
11. Uncertainty! Fell demon of our fears! The human soul, That can support despair, supports not thee.—Mallet
12. There is such a choice of difficulties, that I own myself at a loss how to determine.—General James Wolfe—Dispatch to Pitt