fatalism
Americannoun
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the acceptance of all things and events as inevitable; submission to fate.
Her fatalism helped her to face death with stoic calm.
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Philosophy. the doctrine that all events are subject to fate or inevitable predetermination.
noun
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the philosophical doctrine that all events are predetermined so that man is powerless to alter his destiny
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the acceptance of and submission to this doctrine
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a lack of effort or action in the face of difficulty
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fatalism
Compare meaning
How does fatalism compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
People who exhibit fatalism appear powerless to shape their own future: they believe only in fate. I sense the fatalism in you, but you CAN change things! You can see and hear the word "fate" in the word fatalism. It means "destiny" — the notion that all things are meant to be and that there is nothing you can do to change them. Someone "fatalistic" — who displays fatalism — sees life as a series of inevitable, predetermined events. Often, this term is used negatively to describe someone who refuses to try to shape their own lives or who gives up too easily. Fatalism may in fact be a logical response to life, but that's no reason not to try to change things!
Vocabulary lists containing fatalism
Some Political and Philosophical -isms
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Persepolis
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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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.
But if the movie’s just-so fatalism is less than galvanizing, it’s also soberly convincing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026
And so the chance has arrived at last, decades in the waiting, decades largely made up of frustration, false dawns and fatalism.
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2026
It’s a luxury, a quantum leap, one that can save your imagination from a propensity to meek fatalism or received social patterns.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 13, 2025
One that refuses both fatalism and false neutrality.
From Salon • Jun. 29, 2025
Somewhere in my fatalism I had expected to die, accidentally, and never have the chance to walk up the stairs in the auditorium and gracefully receive my hard-earned diploma.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Definitions 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.
