Adjacent Words

Destiny definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DESTINY, n.
1. State or condition appointed or predetermined; ultimate fate; as, men are solicitous to know their future destiny, which is however happily concealed from them.
2. Invincible necessity; fate; a necessity or fixed order of things established by a divine decree, or by an indissoluble connection of causes and effects.
But who can turn the stream of destiny?
Destinies, the fates, or supposed powers which preside over himan life, spin it out, and determine it; called by the Latins, parcae.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future [syn: destiny, fate]
2: the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face of destiny" [syn: destiny, fate]
3: your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a better fate"; "has a happy lot"; "the luck of the Irish"; "a victim of circumstances"; "success that was her portion" [syn: fortune, destiny, fate, luck, lot, circumstances, portion]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -nies) Etymology: Middle English destinee, from Anglo-French, from feminine of destiné, past participle of destiner Date: 14th century 1. something to which a person or thing is destined ; fortune <wants to control his own destiny> 2. a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency Synonyms: see fate

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a the predetermined course of events; fate. b this regarded as a power. 2 what is destined to happen to a particular person etc. (it was their destiny to be rejected). Etymology: ME f. OF destinée f. Rmc, past part. of destinare: see DESTINE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Destiny Des"ti*ny, n.; pl. Destinies. [OE. destinee, destene, F. destin['e]e, from destiner. See Destine.] 1. That to which any person or thing is destined; predetermined state; condition foreordained by the Divine or by human will; fate; lot; doom. Thither he Will come to know his destiny. --Shak. No man of woman born, Coward or brave, can shun his destiny. --Bryant. 2. The fixed order of things; invincible necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual. But who can turn the stream of destiny? --Spenser. Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. --Longfellow. The Destinies (Anc. Myth.), the three Parc[ae], or Fates; the supposed powers which preside over human life, and determine its circumstances and duration. Marked by the Destinies to be avoided. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(destinies) 1. A person's destiny is everything that happens to them during their life, including what will happen in the future, especially when it is considered to be controlled by someone or something else. We are masters of our own destiny... = fate N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with poss 2. Destiny is the force which some people believe controls the things that happen to you in your life. Is it destiny that brings people together, or is it accident? = fate

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Lot, doom, fortune, fate, star, destination. 2. Fate, necessity, decrees of fate, wheel of fortune.

Moby Thesaurus

Friday, Friday the thirteenth, Heaven, Paradise, Z, a better place, accidentality, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, afterlife, afterworld, allotment, allowance, apodosis, appointed lot, astral influences, astrology, big end, bigger half, bit, bite, book of fate, break, budget, casualness, catastrophe, ceasing, cessation, chance, chunk, circumstance, coda, commission, conclusion, constellation, consummation, contingent, crack of doom, culmination, cup, curtain, curtains, cut, deal, death, decease, denouement, design, destination, dies funestis, dividend, dole, doom, effect, end, end point, ending, envoi, epilogue, equal share, eschatology, eternal home, expiration, fatality, fate, final solution, final twitch, final words, finale, finality, finis, finish, flukiness, foredoom, fortuitousness, fortuity, fortune, future, future state, gamble, goal, good fortune, good luck, half, halver, hap, happenstance, happy chance, heedless hap, helping, home, how they fall, ides of March, indeterminacy, indeterminateness, inevitability, intent, intention, interest, izzard, karma, kismet, last, last breath, last gasp, last things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, law of averages, life after death, life to come, lot, luck, measure, meed, mess, modicum, moiety, moira, next world, objective, omega, opportunity, otherworld, part, payoff, percentage, period, peroration, piece, planets, portion, postexistence, principle of indeterminacy, probability, problematicness, proportion, quantum, quietus, quota, rake-off, random sample, ration, resolution, resting place, risk, run of luck, segment, serendipity, share, slice, small share, stake, stars, statistical probability, stock, stoppage, stopping place, swan song, term, terminal, termination, terminus, the beyond, the breaks, the good hereafter, the grave, the great beyond, the great hereafter, the hereafter, the unknown, theory of probability, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, unlucky day, weird, what bodes, what is fated, whatever comes, wheel of fortune, will of Heaven, windup, world to come