Sure Meaning
/ʃɔː/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjPhysically secure and certain, non-failing, reliable.
adjCertain in one's knowledge or belief.
Sentence Examples
Are you sure of your facts?
You should make sure of the fact without hesitation.
‘Is that John over there?’ ‘I'm not sure’.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After checking the lock twice, she was ____ that the door was secure.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I am absolutely ____ that I left my car keys on the kitchen table before I went out for my walk today.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"'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…'"
— 1932, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, London: Chatto & Windus:
"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."
— 1827, Thomas De Quincey, On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts:
"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."
— 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:
"Feare not: the Forreſt is not three leagues off, / If we recouer that, we are ſure enough."
— 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:
"I presum'd […] [that] you had been sure, as fast as faith could bind you, man and wife."
— 1632, Richard Brome, The Northern Lass:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After checking the lock twice, she was ____ that the door was secure.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I am absolutely ____ that I left my car keys on the kitchen table before I went out for my walk today.