doomed

American  

[doomd] / dumd /

adjective

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of doom.

Other Word Forms

• self-doomed adjective

Etymology

Origin of doomed

doom + -ed ² ( def. )

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.

Example Sentences

The financial irregularities of a partner, who was convicted of felony bank fraud, doomed the venture, and Whittaker was left holding the financial bag.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026

The values of the so-called Anzac spirit - famously traced to a doomed offensive carried out by Australian troops at Gallipoli, Turkey, in World War One - are embedded in Australia's sense of national identity.

From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026

However, Cheng said in a speech after her arrival on Tuesday evening that "the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not doomed to war, as the international community has feared".

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

Once that happened, the poor pastors—social and theological outsiders in a kingdom that was striving for a unified Prussian church—were doomed.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

In what seemed even to me a doomed and Pyrrhic gesture, I switched to English literature without telling my parents.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Related Words

• ill-fated
• wrecked