fate
/feɪt/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms fates fating fated
- noun The presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events.
- noun The effect, consequence, outcome, or inevitable events predetermined by this cause.
- noun An event or a situation which is inevitable in the fullness of time.
- noun Destiny; often with a connotation of death, ruin, misfortune, etc. “Accept your fate.”
- noun (biochemistry) The products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.
- noun (embryology) The mature endpoint of a region, group of cells or individual cell in an embryo, including all changes leading to that mature endpoint
- verb (transitive) To foreordain or predetermine, to make inevitable. “The oracle's prediction fated Oedipus to kill his father; not all his striving could change what would occur.”
- proper noun Any one of the Fates.
- proper noun A personification of fate (the cause that predetermines events).
Synonyms
destiny natural order doom portion wyrd developmental pathway chance destin fatality foredoom foreordination fortune kismet lot orlay predestination predestiny preordination qadar weird luck circumstances destine designate
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English fate, from Latin fāta (“prediction”), plural of fātum, from fātus (“spoken”), from for (“to speak”). In this sense, displaced native Old English wyrd, whence Modern English weird.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A fixed decree by which the order of things is prescribed; the immutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned.
- noun Appointed lot; allotted life; arranged or predetermined event; destiny; especially, the final lot; doom; ruin; death.
Etymology [L. fatum a prophetic declaration, oracle, what is ordained by the gods, destiny, fate, fr. fari to speak: cf. OF. fat. See Fame, Fable, Ban, and cf. 1st Fay, Fairy.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details