predestinate
Americanverb (used with object)
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Theology. to foreordain by divine decree or purpose.
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Obsolete. to foreordain; predetermine.
adjective
verb
adjective
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predestined or foreordained
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theol subject to predestination; decided by God from all eternity
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of predestinate
1350–1400; Middle English predestinaten (v.) < Latin praedestinātus, past participle of praedestināre to appoint beforehand. See pre-, destine, -ate 1
Explanation
Something that's predestinate has been planned or arranged already — there's no way to change its outcome. Some religious observers believe that life is predestinate, willed by God. If you believe that people have free will, the ability to make decisions that change the course of their lives, then you don't agree that everything is predestinate. If, however, you think God or fate or nature has already determined what will happen to you, you believe in a predestinate life. This adjective comes from the Old French prédestiner, "ordain of God," from the Latin root praedestinare, "determine beforehand."
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:
I have recently learned that I am But a creature that moves In predestinate grooves.
From Time Magazine Archive
Perhaps what I have called coldness is a predestinate and ancient endurance.
From George Bernard Shaw by Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Wherefore one ought not to say that God is able not to predestinate one whom He has predestinated, taking it in a composite sense, thought, absolutely speaking, God can predestinate or not.
From Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
But the human will does not exist in the abstract world of reasoned science, in the world of atoms and vibrations, that rigidly predestinate scheme of things in space and time.
From Anticipations Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human life and Thought by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Defining the church as the body of the predestinate, and starting a campaign against indulgences, Huss soon fell under the ban of his superiors.
From The Age of the Reformation by Smith, Preserved
And right now no one seems to posses the same sense of predestinated greatness that accompanied Warne, Murali and Tendulkar.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 5, 2011
These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number is so certain and definite that it can neither be increased nor diminished.”
From The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election by Wallace, Robert
Anyhow, if I'm predestinated to be lost in New York City it's better I should be lost amongst my own kind, which talks my native language, rather than amongst plumb strangers.
From J. Poindexter, Colored by Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, Ephesians i, 4, 5.
From Calvinistic Controversy Embracing a Sermon on Predestination and Election and Several Numbers, Formally Published in the Christian Advocate and Journal. by Fisk, Wilbur
For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son; that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren.
From Grace, Actual and Habitual A Dogmatic Treatise by Preuss, Arthur
His existence appears as fashioned in essence and end by predestinating power, and the Eternal "takes the responsibility."
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 95, September 1865 by Various
Within it by Thy predestinating knowledge and might, He had set forth all that is essential and obligatory for the upraising of Thy Cause in this world below.
From Bahíyyih Khánum by Baha'i World Centre
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.
