fate

[feyt]

noun

1. something that unavoidably befalls a person; fortune; lot.

   It is always his fate to be left behind.

   Synonyms: luck, chance, kismet, karma

2. the universal principle or ultimate agency by which the order of things is presumably prescribed; the decreed cause of events; time.

   Fate decreed that they would never meet again.

3. that which is inevitably predetermined; destiny.

   Death is our ineluctable fate.

4. a prophetic declaration of what must be.

   The oracle pronounced their fate.

5. death, destruction, or ruin.

6. Classical Mythology.,  the Fates, the three goddesses of destiny, known to the Greeks as the Moerae and to the Romans as the Parcae.

verb (used with object)

fated, fating 

1. to predetermine, as by the decree of fate; destine (used in the passive).

   a person who was fated to be the savior of the country.

   Synonyms: preordain, foreordain

fate

/ feɪt /

noun

1. the ultimate agency that predetermines the course of events

2. the inevitable fortune that befalls a person or thing; destiny

3. the end or final result

4. a calamitous or unfavourable outcome or result; death, destruction, or downfall

verb

1. (tr; usually passive) to predetermine; doom

   he was fated to lose the game

Word History and Origins

Origin of fate¹

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, Middle French, from Latin fātum “what has been spoken, utterance, decree of fate, destiny,” originally neuter of fātus, past participle of fārī “to speak”

Word History and Origins

Origin of fate¹

C14: from Latin fātum oracular utterance, from fārī to speak

Idioms and Phrases

• seal one's fate
• tempt fate

Synonym Study

Fate, destiny, doom refer to the idea of a fortune, usually adverse, that is predetermined and inescapable. The three words are frequently interchangeable. Fate stresses the irrationality and impersonal character of events: It was Napoleon's fate to be exiled. The word is often lightly used, however: It was my fate to meet her that very afternoon. Destiny emphasizes the idea of an unalterable course of events, and is often used of a propitious fortune: It was his destiny to save his nation. Doom especially applies to the final ending, always unhappy or terrible, brought about by destiny or fate: He met his doom bravely.

Example Sentences

Today, her transplant is tied up in a tangle of bureaucracy, her fate bound to a home she can’t live in and an address she can’t leave.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

News of the children's escape brought welcome relief for families and for a country that has been agonising over the fate of hundreds of schoolchildren abducted in Nigeria's northwest.

Read more on BBC

Single stair, and the fate of Culver City’s ordinance specifically, represents an early California acid test.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Truly, the only question he might legitimately have about his fate after shuffling off this mortal coil is which of Dante’s circles of hell he has rightfully earned.

Read more on Salon

There’s no federal law governing the fate of embryos in divorce, and states vary in how they approach the matter.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• chance 
• circumstance 
• consequence 
• destiny 
• effect 
• future 
• issue 
• outcome