doom

[ doom ]

noun

1. fate or destiny, especially adverse fate; unavoidable ill fortune:

   In exile and poverty, he met his doom.

2. ruin; death:

   to fall to one's doom.

3. a judgment, decision, or sentence, especially an unfavorable one:

   The judge pronounced the defendant's doom.

   Synonyms: fate, ruination, downfall, destruction

4. the Last Judgment, at the end of the world.
5. Obsolete. a statute, enactment, or legal judgment.

verb (used with object)

1. to destine, especially to an adverse fate.

   Synonyms: predestine, foreordain

2. to pronounce judgment against; condemn.
3. to ordain or fix as a sentence or fate.

doom

/ duːm /

noun

1. death or a terrible fate
2. a judgment or decision
3. sometimes capital another term for the Last Judgment

verb

1. tr to destine or condemn to death or a terrible fate

Other Words From

• doom·y adjective
• pre·doom verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of doom¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English dome, dōm, Old English dōm “judgment, law”; cognate with Old Norse dōmr, “judgment, sentence, court,” Gothic dōms “sentence, fame,” all from Germanic dômaz “what has been set,” from dôn “to set, place, do ¹( def ) ”; compare Greek thémis “law” (i.e., “what has been set, laid down”); deem

Word History and Origins

Origin of doom¹

Old English dōm; related to Old Norse dōmr judgment, Gothic dōms sentence, Old High German tuom condition, Greek thomos crowd, Sanskrit dhāman custom; see do ¹, deem , deed , -dom

Synonym Study

See fate.

Example Sentences

With the sense of doom that has persisted throughout much of 2020, it’s hard to imagine a better time for Sun Ra’s message — that humans need to evolve to a more spiritual plane, to be welcomed and embraced with open arms.

From Washington Post

I tend to press my finger firmly into the side of the phone when I’m holding it to doom scroll or watch content, and the flat edge is much more comfortable.

From Popular-Science

Plus, Lane seals her doom by agreeing to marry Zach, and Christopher’s fantastically annoying other daughter Gigi has tons of screentime.

From Vox

All at once he felt frigid and overwhelmed with a sense of impending doom.

From Popular-Science

Many of his accounts feature fungal heroes, poised to save the planet from almost certain doom.

From Nautilus

When summer comes, adult beetles attack and larva feed in the cambium layer, girdling the trees and sealing their doom.

From The Daily Beast

Many view it as a man drawn to his doom by his infatuation for a younger woman, and youth in general.

From The Daily Beast

When we step into that cylinder of dry air and certain doom, all we can think is what it will be like when it crashes.

From The Daily Beast

And that may doom any shot Hillary Clinton has at the presidency.

From The Daily Beast

Thankfully, I have a high-speed Internet connection, so my doom window was but fleeting.

From The Daily Beast

He breathed fierce and honest anathema on the heads of the bowelless fiends who had abandoned the babe to its doom.

From Project Gutenberg

For Tony certainly acknowledged by his attitude the same threatening sense of doom that lay so heavy upon his cousin's heart.

From Project Gutenberg

Let us remember that "if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom!"

From Project Gutenberg

Daily the effort to escape this doom; to push away the threat of that painful point will increase.

From Project Gutenberg

Only half convinced and full of suspicion, the Sultan walked on in a daze, as though he were going to his last doom.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• calamity
• cataclysm
• catastrophe
• disaster
• downfall