certain event

noun

An event that contains all of the possible outcomes and thus is known a priori to be certain to occur;

Meanings

nouncertain event (plural certain events)

plural certain events

  1. mathematicsAn event that contains all of the possible outcomes and thus is known a priori to be certain to occur;

    Hence the event A#95;1#92;capA#95;2#92;cap#92;dots#92;capA#95;k will be a certain event too, i.e. P(A#95;1#92;capA#95;2#92;cap#92;dots#92;capA#95;k)#61;1.

    2002, Andrew G. Bronevich, Alexander N. Karkishchenko, “The structure of fuzzy measure families induced by upper and lower probabilities”, in Carlo Bertoluzza, María Á. Gil, Dan A. Ralescu, editors, Statistical Modeling, Analysis and Management of Fuzzy Data, Springer, page 165
    2 more examples

    Measure 0 is assigned to an impossible event, and measure 1 is assigned to a certain (sure) event. A certain event is denoted as #92;Omega; an impossible event, as #92;empty.

    1995, Michael Pecht, Product Reliability, Maintainability, and Supportability Handbook, CRC Press, page 17

    In probability theory, events are sets with a non-negative length that is at most one, since we assume that the sample space #92;Omega is the certain event and should be assigned the largest length, i.e., 1 (probability 100%).

    2018, Athanasios Christou Micheas, Theory of Stochastic Objects, Taylor & Francis (CRC Press / Chapman & Hall), unnumbered page
  2. An event that contains all of the possible outcomes and thus is known a priori to be certain to occur; (more formally) the entire sample space (which by definition has measure 1 and probability 1); said sample space with the exclusion of, at most, a set of measure 0 (thus retaining measure 1).
    1. more formallymathematicsthe entire sample space (which by definition has measure 1 and probability 1); said sample space with the exclusion of, at most, a set of measure 0 (thus retaining measure 1).

Translations

Bulgarian сигурно събитие
  • сигурно събитие (sigurno săbitie)event that is certain to occur
Chinese Mandarin 必然事件
  • 必然事件 (bìrán shìjiàn)event that is certain to occur
Cite this entry
APA

certain event. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/certain%20event

MLA

“certain event.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/certain%20event. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “certain event,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/certain%20event.

Source: certain event on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.