From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englisha certaina certaina) used to say that an amount is not great You may need to do a certain amount of work in the evenings.to a certain extent/degree (=partly, but not completely) I do agree with his ideas to a certain extent. b) enough of a particular quality to be noticed There’s a certain prestige about going to a private school. c) formal used to talk about someone you do not know but whose name you have been told a certain Mr Franks → certain
Examples from the Corpus
a certain• The restaurant has a certain charm.• There's a certain Mrs. Myles on the telephone.• A baby was crying, and I felt a certain sympathy for it. 