Roget's Thesaurus

#475. Uncertainty

Nouns

uncertainty, incertitude, doubt; doubtfulness etc. adj.; dubiety, dubitation, dubitancy, dubitousness. hesitation, suspense; perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, bewilderment; timidity etc. (fear) 860; vacillation etc. 605; diaporesis, indetermination. vagueness etc. adj.; haze, fog; obscurity etc. (darkness) 421; ambiguity etc. (double meaning) 520; contingency, dependence, dependency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility; open question etc. (question) 461; onus probandi [Lat.]; 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 etc. adj.; fallibility.

Verbs

be uncertain etc. adj.; wonder whether. lose the clue, lose the clew, scent; miss one's way. not know what to make of etc. (unintelligibility) 519, not know which way to turn, not know 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 etc. adj.; put out, pose, puzzle, perplex, embarrass; confuse, confound; bewilder, bother, molder, addle the wits, throw off the scent, ambiguas in vulgus spargere voces [Lat.]; keep in suspense. doubt etc. (disbelieve) 485; hang in the balance, tremble in the balance; depend.

Adjectives

uncertain; casual; random etc. (aimless) 621; changeable etc. 149. doubtful, dubious; indecisive; unsettled, undecided, undetermined; in suspense, open to discussion; controvertible; in question etc. (inquiry) 461. vague; indeterminate, indefinite; ambiguous, equivocal; undefined, undefinable; confused etc. (indistinct) 447; mystic, oracular; dazed. perplexing etc. v.; enigmatic, paradoxical, apocryphal, problematical, hypothetical; experimental etc. 463. unpredictable, unforeseeable (unknowable) 519. 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, etc. 491; 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 etc. v.; lost, abroad, disoriented; distracted, distraught.

Adverbs

pendente lite [Lat.]; sub spe rati [Lat.].

Phrases

Heaven knows; who can tell?, who shall decide when doctors disagree?; ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces [Lat.].