ill-fated
Americanadjective
-
destined, as though by fate, to an unhappy or unfortunate end.
an ill-fated voyage.
- Synonyms:
- ill-starred, doomed, cursed, accursed
-
bringing bad fortune.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of ill-fated
First recorded in 1700–10
Explanation
If you have terrible luck, you're ill-fated. An ill-fated plan to drive across the country might end with your old car breaking down in Kansas. An ill-fated day is one you remember for years as extremely unlucky, and an ill-fated decision, in retrospect, was a really bad choice. An ill-fated attempt at tightrope walking results in falling off over and over again, and an ill-fated choice of lunch in a foreign country might end in food poisoning. Ill-fated is rooted in ill-, "badly," and fated, "be destined to happen," from the Latin fatum, "that which has been spoken."
Vocabulary lists containing ill-fated
Blood on the River
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Pre-AP Theatre
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Far from the Tree
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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.
Researchers have identified four additional sailors from Sir John Franklin's ill-fated 1845 Arctic expedition, including one man whose identity had remained the subject of debate for more than a century.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
The defendants are accused of helping to organise the ill-fated journey by lodging and transporting the migrants, supplying the boat they left in, and handling the money they paid.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Most accounts of the American Revolution skate right over the ill-fated invasion of Quebec in 1775, months before the Declaration of Independence.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Will helping customers buy its products be a smart move, a la Apple’s iPhone-financing strategy, or akin to telecom equipment makers’ ill-fated pivot into vendor financing during the internet boom?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
They had come to inspect the old Deutsches Stadion, built in 1916 for the ill-fated Olympic Games of that year.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
