Moira
Americannoun
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Moirai
plural
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Classical Mythology.
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the personification of fate.
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Moirai, the Fates. See fate.
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(often lowercase) (among ancient Greeks) a person's fate or destiny.
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a female given name.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Moira
From Greek moîra “part, portion of booty, one’s portion in life, division (of land, people), political party,” related to Greek méros “a part”
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.
See Examples For:
She used Moira instead for the more unusual spelling but pronounced it the same.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
My mom wanted almost her entire life to name her future daughter Moira, after her mother’s cousin Maura who lived in Northern Ireland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
And one can only hope there was a wig wall somewhere inspired by Catherine O’Hara’s Moira Rose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
"Elle is a cute, funny fish-out-of-water comedy series", wrote arts critic Moira Macdonald.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
Moira, sitting on the edge of my bed, legs crossed, ankle on knee, in her purple overalls, one dangly earring, the gold fingernail she wore to be eccentric, a cigarette between her stubby yellow-ended fingers.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
The actress also points to the mythological figures known as The Fates or Moirai, who appear throughout the series and become increasingly central to Zoe's emotional unravelling.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
He now lives back in New York, where his next project will be Gbadu and the Moirai Index, a work for four female singers to be performed near the New York stock exchange.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 26, 2013
Public fact becomes private reality, and the seasons of a Midwestern town become the Moirai of our small lives.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
Their tragedies were largely limited to Nemesis, the Moirai, the Erinnydes, and lower forms, such as harpies.
From Donatello, by Lord Balcarres by David Lindsay, Earl of Crawford
But the mighty Moirai, whose word even Zeus himself may not turn aside, had fixed the doom of Meleagros.
From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by T. L. (Thomas Louis) Haines
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