# Is there a word that means "unsure but okay with it"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 30, 2016, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472 "2016-08-30T12:14:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/1 "2016-08-30T12:14:37Z")
As friend tells me there is a word that means you are uncertain of something that is very important (such as a major life decision), but that you are okay with that uncertainty. She’s trying to remember the word in something she’s writing- she says it might be hyphenated.
I’m drawing a blank. Can anybody think of a word that works?
Thanks
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/2 "2016-08-30T13:08:03Z")
I would say something like “accepting”, but I may be translating.
m-w’s list of “words similar to accept but not quite synonym”:
accede (to), assent (to), concede (to), confirm, consent (to), OK (or okay), ratify, sanction, warrant; acquiesce (to), bow (to), capitulate (to), give in (to), submit (to), succumb (to), surrender (to), yield (to); abide, bear, brook, countenance, endure, shoulder, stand, stick out, stomach, support, sustain, swallow, sweat out, tolerate; adopt, embrace, welcome
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### Author:  [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/3 "2016-08-30T13:35:48Z")
Does it have to be an English word? It sounds like something that there ought to be a German word for.
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### Author:  [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/4 "2016-08-30T13:39:54Z")
Ambivalent
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### Author:  [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/5 "2016-08-30T14:00:34Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#):
>
> Ambivalent
+1
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/6 "2016-08-30T14:03:51Z")
I would think that “serene” (as in serenity) has that connotation for me.
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### Author:  [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/7 "2016-08-30T14:04:14Z")
acquiescent
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/8 "2016-08-30T14:05:48Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#):
>
> Does it have to be an English word? It sounds like something that there ought to be a German word for.
Oh, you mean Ausfallmöglichkeitannahme 😉 ?
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/9 "2016-08-30T14:12:22Z")
Splunge?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/10 "2016-08-30T14:15:42Z")
The words that people have suggested so far may be _applicable_ to the kind of situation the OP describes, but they don’t mean _specifically_ that. I think that, ideally, **Sampiro** wants a word such that anyone who heard the word (and was familiar with it) would think, “Oh, you mean ‘you are uncertain of something that is very important (such as a major life decision), but that you are okay with that uncertainty.’”
But I can’t think of a word that means specifically that, though now I’m curious whether there is one.
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### Author:  [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/11 "2016-08-30T14:17:10Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Oh, you mean Ausfallmöglichkeitannahme 😉 ?
I knew it!!!
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/12 "2016-08-30T14:51:48Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#):
>
> acquiescent
For the win!
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/13 "2016-08-30T15:20:27Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#):
>
> acquiescent
Works best so far.
Thanks for all suggestions!
I can think of lots that are the opposite: anxious, world-weary, existential angst, etc., but not for the “happily resigned” feeling.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/14 "2016-08-30T17:16:12Z")
“Whatever.”
But OP is looking for description, not instances. Like the current thead on uncomfortable silences.
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### Author:  [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/15 "2016-08-30T20:12:26Z")
If polling is still open, might I suggest ‘sanguine’?
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/16 "2016-08-30T20:21:20Z")
Meh.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/17 "2016-08-30T20:26:03Z")
WTF.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/18 "2016-08-30T20:55:41Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> **Sampiro** wants a word such that anyone who heard the word (and was familiar with it) would think, “Oh, you mean ‘you are uncertain of something that is very important (such as a major life decision), but that you are okay with that uncertainty.’”
Hauptlebensentscheidungunsicherheitannahme . This is not the same as Ausfallmöglichkeitannahme and a lot more like
Verzweigungspunktunsicherheitannahme, but with subtle differences.
😃
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/19 "2016-08-30T21:02:21Z")
Resigned.
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### Author:  [@Vicsage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicsage)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-unsure-but-okay-with-it/764472/20 "2016-08-30T21:15:15Z")
Someone’s a Python fan.
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