From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpractical certainty/disaster/sell-out etcpractical certainty/disaster/sell-out etcALMOSTsomething that is almost certain, almost a disaster etc Sampras looks a practical certainty to win Wimbledon this year. → practical
Examples from the Corpus
practical certainty/disaster/sell-out etc• It was a practical certainty that he would be trying to raise more loans long before these were ever repaid. 