doomed
Americanadjective
-
destined, or seemingly destined, especially to an adverse fate.
Math wizards were able to pinpoint the final resting place of the doomed jet deep beneath the ocean.
-
judged guilty and sentenced, especially to death; condemned.
Several times today and tonight the doomed man has wept like a child in his prison cell.
-
ordained or fixed, as a sentence or fate.
In this age of finding everything online, it won’t be long before seed catalogs suffer the same doomed fate as most gardening magazines.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of doomed
Explanation
The doomed are people marked by very bad luck, particularly death. When you learn about a tragedy, like a tsunami that kills many people, it makes you feel terrible for the doomed. Doomed is a plural noun for referring to a group of unfortunate people, and it's also an adjective describing someone who's destined to die. A runaway dog that kills the animal control officer's pet chickens is doomed, and many characters in Shakespeare's tragic plays are doomed. You can also follow doomed with "to" to mean "destined" or "fated." Your uncle might be doomed to continue working as a school bus driver for the rest of his career.
Vocabulary lists containing doomed
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
McCarthy’s novels—like all human endeavor—were doomed before they were even written, but they are still stupendous.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
I don’t think you are doomed, but nor do I have tips or tricks — except to say that if you don’t talk about it, this economic disparity will become bigger than both of you.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
The pass looked doomed the moment it left Jayden Maiava’s hands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Before Kao’s doomed reign as CEO, Navatek was a sleepy Hawaiian engineering company with a few dozen employees.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
But it was so like her to try, to make this doomed, grasping, well-meaning effort.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
