How to Use a certain in a Sentence

a certain

idiom
  • Do either of you ever feel pressure from above to have an aircraft ready by a certain time?
    Jim Clash, Forbes, 23 Dec. 2024
  • While your body needs a certain amount of visceral fat to stay healthy, too much can cause or increase your risk of certain health conditions.
    Maggie Aime, Msn, Health, 22 Dec. 2024
  • Having empathy allows a company to adjust to the needs of its employees to a certain point.
    Rolling Stone Culture Council, Rolling Stone, 23 Dec. 2024
  • Many were encouraged to propose a certain number of targets each day, according to five officers.
    Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 26 Dec. 2024
  • Both teams get to come to the rink with a certain amount of freedom, right?
    Ben Morse, CNN, 24 June 2024
  • But at a certain point, often around 1 in the morning, comes a lull in the marathon.
    Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Mar. 2024
  • But there’s a certain amount of neo-noir Tokyo 1999 style that was kind of baked into the script.
    Mikey O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Feb. 2024
  • If the child is used to a certain night-light or a sound machine, these can be brought along as well.
    Ambrosia V. Brody, Parents, 28 Mar. 2024
  • Does this mean that LaPaglia couldn’t talk about Bryan for a certain amount of time?
    Claudia Rosenbaum, Vulture, 19 Nov. 2024
  • The posters dotting the streets of Buenos Aires had a certain Soviet flare to them.
    Lucía Cholakian Herrera, New York Times, 15 Nov. 2023
  • There’s one room that smells a certain way that leads into the other room.
    Rebecca Angel Baer, Southern Living, 20 Dec. 2023
  • Perhaps a note-to-self in disguise, but try not to get too attached to a certain brand.
    Talia Abbas, Vogue, 23 Apr. 2024
  • Denver had the game on his foot — and in the care of the field goal protection group — and saw a certain win vanish in a flash of red.
    Parker Gabriel, The Denver Post, 10 Nov. 2024
  • Ships as large as the Dali must maintain a certain speed to avoid being pushed around by winds and currents.
    Landon Mion, Fox News, 27 Mar. 2024
  • There’s a certain wistful loveliness in all of that, the mind drifting to what could have been.
    Michael Bamberger, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2023
  • That feature also comes in handy when trying to find a certain item in your bag.
    Rachel Trujillo, Travel + Leisure, 1 Dec. 2024
  • After a certain amount of time, my body still was not responding to the treatment.
    Rachel Chang, Travel + Leisure, 4 Sep. 2024
  • Warm weather does not delay the rut any more than a certain moon phase kicks it into gear.
    Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 25 May 2023
  • And every cook has been trained to cook everything a certain way.
    Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 26 Jan. 2023
  • While there’s not always a direct cause, it can be caused by excess oils or a certain type of yeast.
    Madison Yauger, Peoplemag, 9 Feb. 2024
  • None of the alerts’ criteria require a person to have been missing for a certain amount of time.
    Carol Robinson | Crobinson@al.com, al, 1 Sep. 2023
  • Cards start players off by making a certain shape, and players have to use their wits to see how the rest of the pieces fit in to complete the puzzle.
    Rachel Rothman, Good Housekeeping, 18 Aug. 2023
  • For example, a cash gift to a food bank might provide a certain amount of meals to those who can’t afford them.
    Bob Carlson, Forbes, 12 Dec. 2024
  • The venture was structured as a time share, giving each partner a right to use it a certain number of days.
    Charlie Savage, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Among the big additions to the product are a sleep timer, which will let users set a timer to pause videos after a certain amount of viewing.
    Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Oct. 2024
  • There are a lot of men who are extremely successful and want things a certain way.
    Emi Nietfeld, WIRED, 11 Dec. 2024
  • To be convicted enough to trade to No. 3 means a certain quarterback has to still be on the board, and there's no way of knowing that quite yet.
    Nate Atkins, The Indianapolis Star, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Under a treaty from back in the 1940s, Mexico agreed to give a certain amount of water to the Lower Rio Grande region.
    Olivianna Calmes, Fox News, 28 May 2024
  • If those deposits build up again and hit a certain threshold, patients would start getting the drug again.
    Alice Park, TIME, 2 July 2024
  • And so that is a good thing because the body needs to be designed in a certain way in order to function properly.
    quantamagazine.org, 15 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'a certain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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