foreordain

American  

[fawr-awr-deyn, fohr-] / ˌfɔr ɔrˈdeɪn, ˌfoʊr- /

verb (used with object)

1. to ordain or appoint beforehand.

2. to predestine; predetermine.

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foreordain British  

/ ˌfɔːrɔːˈdeɪn, ˌfɔːrɔːdɪˈneɪʃən /

verb

1. (tr; may take a clause as object) to determine (events, results, etc) in the future

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Other Word Forms

• foreordainment noun

Etymology

Origin of foreordain

First recorded in 1400–50, foreordain is from the late Middle English word forordeinen. See fore-, ordain

Example Sentences

How funny it would be if his biggest hit song ever was the one he didn’t foreordain at all?

From Slate • Jul. 27, 2018

But it does not foreordain that they will be incapable of finding common ground, or that the current period of intense partisanship will go on forever.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 25, 2018

To others, it celebrated the ability of Mr. Burden, whose very surname seemed to foreordain a life of professional dolor, to inscribe himself indelibly into his own work, as artists from J.S.

From New York Times • May 11, 2015

For it cannot with any fairness be assumed that the framers of the Constitution intended to foreordain a perpetual balance of power between the Free and the Slave States.

From The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V Political Essays by Lowell, James Russell

The Confession of Faith gives the following deliverance on the subject—“God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably foreordain whatsoever comes to pass.”

From The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election by Wallace, Robert