sure
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /ʃɔː(ɹ)/
note: without the pour–poor merger
ipa: /ʃʊə(ɹ)/
ipa: /ʃoː/
note: cure–fir merger
ipa: /ʃɜː/
ipa: /ʃoː/
ipa: /ʃʊɹ/
note: cure–fir merger
ipa: /ʃɝ/
note: pour–poor merger
ipa: /ʃoɹ/
ipa: /ʃɔɹ/
note: cure–fir merger
ipa: /ʃɝ/
ipa: /ʃuɚ/
note: non-rhotic, show–sure merger, African-American Vernacular
ipa: /ʃoʊ/
ipa: /ʃʉːɹ/
ipa: /ˈʃuːɹ/
ipa: /sjʊəɹ/
ipa: /sjuːɹ/
ipa: /sɪʊ̯ɹ/
homophone: shore (pour–poor merger)
homophone: shaw
homophone: Shaw (both paw–poor merger)
homophone: show (show–sure merger)
rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
Forms: form: surer
form: surest
form: sho
form: sho'
Etymology: From Middle English sure, seur, sur, from Middle French sur or Old French seür, from Latin sēcūrus (“secure”, literally “carefree”), from sē- (“apart”) + cūra (“care”) (compare Old English orsorg (“carefree”), from or- (“without”) + sorg (“care”)). See cure. Doublet of secure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”).
Displaced native Middle English wis, iwis (“certain, sure”) (from Old English ġewis, ġewiss (“certain, sure”)), as well as Middle English siker (“sure, secure”) (from Old English sicor (“secure, sure”)) with which it was cognate.
Senses: examples: text: This investment is a sure thing.
text: The bailiff had a sure grip on the prisoner's arm.
text: 'In the end,' said Mustapha Mond, 'the Controllers realized that force was no good. The slower but infinitely surer methods of ectogenesis, Neo-Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopædia…'
ref: 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London: Chatto & Windus:
glosses: Physically secure and certain, non-failing, reliable.
examples: text: The very excess of the extravagance, in fact, by suggesting to the reader continually the mere aeriality of the entire speculation, furnishes the surest means of disenchanting him from the horror which might else gather upon his feelings.
ref: 1827, Thomas De Quincey, On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts:
text: The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:
text: Roy: I'm 95% sure it was him.
Jen: You... you said you were 99% sure.
Roy: I'm 97% sure it was him.
ref: 2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1
text: Are you sure to succeed, as polls say? —Well, I am at least certain of making it to the podium this time.
text: He was sure of being a finalist.
text: They aren't sure who will attend for sure.
text: You seemed sure that the car was his. Yeah. I’m not sure what is the point of spending hours and hours discussing this.
glosses: Certain in one's knowledge or belief.
examples: text: Be sure to lock the door when you leave.
glosses: Certain to act or be a specified way.
raw_tags: followed by a to infinitive
examples: text: Feare not: the Forreſt is not three leagues off, / If we recouer that, we are ſure enough.
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 36, column 1:
glosses: Free from danger; safe; secure.
examples: text: c. 1513-1518 (probably date written, published after 1535) Thomas More, History of King Richard III
The king was sure to Dame Elizabeth Lucy, and her husband before God.
text: I presum'd […] [that] you had been sure, as fast as faith could bind you, man and wife.
ref: 1632, Richard Brome, The Northern Lass:
glosses: Betrothed; engaged to marry.
Synonyms: sense: secure and steadfast
word: certain
sense: secure and steadfast
word: failsafe
sense: secure and steadfast
word: reliable
sense: secure and steadfast
word: sicker
sense: steadfast in one's knowledge or belief
word: certain
sense: steadfast in one's knowledge or belief
word: positive
sense: steadfast in one's knowledge or belief
word: wis
Derived terms: as sure as eggs are eggs
as sure as eggs is eggs
cock-sure
damn sure
for sure
I'm sure
make sure
self-sure
slow but sure wins the race
sure as a gun
sure as death
sure as death and taxes
sure as eggs
sure as eggs are eggs
sure as eggs is eggs
sure as fate
sure as hell
sure as shit
sure as shooting
sure as sugar
sure as taxes
sure as the sun is going to come up tomorrow
sure as the sun is going to come up tomorrow morning
sure as the sun is going to rise tomorrow
sure as the sun is going to rise tomorrow morning
sure as the world
sure bet
sure enough
sure-enough
sure-fire
sure-footed
sure-footedness
sure hand at the tiller
sure-handed
sure-handedly
sure-handedness
sure hand on the tiller
surely
sure of oneself
sure thing
sure up
to be sure