Word.ws English Dictionary

nothing is certain but death and taxes

nothing is certain but death and taxes proverb: nothing in life is certain nor can be taken for granted, except (humorously) that one will die one day and that one is required to pay taxes.

Proverb

nothing is certain but death and taxes

  1. (humorous) Nothing in life is certain nor can be taken for granted, except (humorously) that one will die one day and that one is required to pay taxes.

Origin of nothing is certain but death and taxes

Variant of a 1789 quotation from Benjamin Franklin, used in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy.

Questions about nothing is certain but death and taxes

What does nothing is certain but death and taxes mean?
Nothing is certain but death and taxes means nothing in life is certain nor can be taken for granted, except (humorously) that one will die one day and that one is required to pay taxes.
What part of speech is nothing is certain but death and taxes?
Nothing is certain but death and taxes is a proverb.

Words near nothing is certain but death and taxes in the dictionary

  1. nothing doing
  2. nothing else for it
  3. nothing for it
  4. nothing gold can stay
  5. nothing if not
  6. nothing is certain but death and taxes
  7. nothing is said that has not been said before
  8. nothing less than
  9. nothing like
  10. nothing more than
  11. nothing new under the sun

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nothing is certain but death and taxes (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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