Word.ws English Dictionary

dead cert

dead cert noun: a practically guaranteed outcome.

Noun

dead cert (plural dead certs)

  1. (informal) A practically guaranteed outcome.
    • It's a dead cert that United will beat City in the cup.
    • “Jockeys are bad tipsters. But that one was a cert, a dead cert.” A dead cert. The casual, everyday racing expression jabbed in my mind like a needle.1962, Dick Francis, chapter 4, in Dead Cert, published 2004, page 46
    Synonyms:
    sure thing

Synonyms of dead cert

Forms of dead cert

pluraldead certs

Origin of dead cert

Clipped compound of dead certainty.

Questions about dead cert

What does dead cert mean?
Dead cert means a practically guaranteed outcome.
What part of speech is dead cert?
Dead cert is a noun.
What is the plural of dead cert?
The plural of dead cert is dead certs.

Words near dead cert in the dictionary

  1. dead catting
  2. dead center
  3. dead centers
  4. dead centre
  5. dead centres
  6. dead cert
  7. dead certs
  8. Dead Chest Island
  9. dead click
  10. dead clicks
  11. dead code

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dead cert (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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