predetermine

[pree-di-tur-min]

verb (used with object)

predetermined, predetermining 

1. to settle or decide in advance.

   He had predetermined his answer to the offer.

2. to ordain in advance; predestine.

   She believed that God had predetermined her sorrow.

3. to direct or impel; influence strongly.

   His sympathy for poor people predetermined his choice of a career.

predetermine

/ ˌpriːdɪˈtɜːmɪn /

verb

1. to determine beforehand

2. to influence or incline towards an opinion beforehand; bias

Other Word Forms

• predetermination noun
• predeterminative adjective
• predeterminer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of predetermine¹

First recorded in 1615–25; pre- + determine

Example Sentences

The panel was acting based on “predetermined ideology,” not science, said Crawford, a past president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners who specializes in treating childhood seizures.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

If vacancy rates are below a predetermined level, it gets more units.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Police then said several suspects had been arrested following what appeared to be a "targeted and predetermined" assassination.

Read more on BBC

Obama’s subtle and possibly unconscious change from the cosmological to the temporal is significant in showing that liberals, too, think that history is somehow predetermined in their favor.

Read more on Salon

But Jerold Mande, a former federal food policy advisor in three administrations, worries that Kennedy's own views and biases will mean some of the solutions he's reaching for are predetermined and unsupported by the evidence.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• predispose