sure

UK/ʃoː/

adjectiveA13 meanings One of the most common words in English · #36 of 15,258mostly spoken

Other forms: surer, surest

Sure means you have no doubt. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. I locked the door, I'm sure of it.

In speech, sure is also a whole answer meaning yes: can you give me a hand? Sure. Americans add sure thing and for sure, and everyone says sure enough when a thing you expected really does happen. Two frames carry most of the everyday work, make sure and be sure to, as in make sure the gas is off and be sure to lock up. Mind the small words: sure of yourself, sure about the date, sure that it was Tuesday. And surely is a different animal; it asks for agreement, as in surely you knew, rather than meaning certainly in the plain way learners expect.

Definitions of sure

1adjectivesureHaving no doubt about something.A1~86%
“I am not sure whether the shop opens on Sundays.”
synonyms: certain, positive, convinced
2adjectivecertainCertain to happen or certain to work.A2~12%
“A hot bath is a sure way to warm up after a walk like that.”
3interjectionyesYes, of course. Used in conversation as an easy agreement.A1~2%
“Can I borrow your pen? Sure, take it.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also accepted in games: certain

Phrases it lives in

make sure — to check, or to act so that something definitely happens
sure enough — and it did happen, just as expected
for sure — without any doubt, informally

Where it comes from

Sure and secure are the same Latin word arriving twice by different roads. This one came through Old French seür from Latin sēcūrus, which is sē-, "apart", plus cūra, "care", so literally carefree. It pushed out the older native words wis and siker, which had meant exactly the same thing.

Latin
sēcūrus — secure
Old French
seür
Middle French
sur
Middle English
sure
English, today
sure

Built from

sē- · Latin — apart
cūra · Latin — care
or- · Old English — without
sorg · Old English — care

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. a doublet of secure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”). Displaced native Middle English wis (“certain, sure”) (from Old English gewiss (“certain, sure”)), as well as siker (“sure, secure”) (from Old English sicor (“secure, sure”)) with which it was cognate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Adjectives

Practise this word

sure in the wild

A person who is sure-footed is thus unlikely to slip or stumble, and will have a good head for heights when required.
Sure-footedness
Using the first pair, however, implies very strongly that the speaker either witnessed the event or is very sure that it took place.
Inferential mood
With Pichardo holding the last attempt, Tamgho had to make sure.
2013 World Championships in Athletics – Men's triple jump
Knapp, the model suggests that all of the steps should be done one at a time, in sequence, to make sure they are effective.
Knapp's relational development model
Because it involves making decisions without having enough information to be sure that one is right, this can give rise to poor or rash decisions.
Jumping to conclusions

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the seür family

sure

sure — used about once every 3 pages · #36 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of sure

1adjectivesureHaving no doubt about something.A1~86%

“I am not sure whether the shop opens on Sundays.”

synonyms: certain, positive, convinced

2adjectivecertainCertain to happen or certain to work.A2~12%

“A hot bath is a sure way to warm up after a walk like that.”

3interjectionyesYes, of course. Used in conversation as an easy agreement.A1~2%

“Can I borrow your pen? Sure, take it.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Also accepted in games: certain