Adjacent Words

Fate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FATE, n. [L. fatum, from for, fari, to speak, whence fatus.]
1. Primarily, a decree or word pronounced by God; or a fixed sentence by which the order of things is prescribed. Hence, inevitable necessity; destiny depending on a superior cause and uncontrollable. According to the Stoics, every event is determined by fate.
Necessity or chancenot me; and what I will is fate.
2. Event predetermined; lot; destiny. It is our fate to meet with disappointments.
It is the fate of mortals.
Tell me what fates attend the duke of Suffolk?
3. Final event; death; destruction.
Yet still he chose the longest way to fate.
The whizzing arrow sings,
And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings.
4. Cause of death. Dryden calls an arrow a feathered fate.
Divine fate, the order or determination of God; providence.

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] v
1: decree or designate beforehand; "She was destined to become a great pianist" [syn: destine, fate, doom, designate]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin fatum, literally, what has been spoken, from neuter of fatus, past participle of fari to speak — more at ban Date: 14th century 1. the will or principle or determining cause by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do ; destiny 2. a. an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end b. disaster; especially death 3. a. final outcome b. the expected result of normal development <prospective fate of embryonic cells> c. the circumstances that befall someone or something <did not know the fate of her former classmates> 4. plural, capitalized the three goddesses who determine the course of human life in classical mythology Synonyms: fate, destiny, lot, portion, doom mean a predetermined state or end. fate implies an inevitable and usually an adverse outcome <the fate of the submarine is unknown>. destiny implies something foreordained and often suggests a great or noble course or end <the country's destiny to be a model of liberty to the world>. lot and portion imply a distribution by fate or destiny, lot suggesting blind chance <it was her lot to die childless>, portion implying the apportioning of good and evil <remorse was his daily portion>. doom distinctly implies a grim or calamitous fate <if the rebellion fails, his doom is certain>. II. transitive verb (fated; fating) Date: 1601 destine; also doom

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a power regarded as predetermining events unalterably. 2 a the future regarded as determined by such a power. b an individual's appointed lot. c the ultimate condition or end of a person or thing (that sealed our fate). 3 death, destruction. 4 (usu. Fate) a goddess of destiny, esp. one of three Greek or Scandinavian goddesses. --v.tr. 1 (usu. in passive) preordain (was fated to win). 2 (as fated adj.) doomed to destruction. Phrases and idioms: fate worse than death see DEATH. Etymology: ME f. It. fato & L fatum that which is spoken, f. fari speak

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Fate Fate, n. [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.] 1. 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. Necessity and chance Approach not me; and what I will is fate. --Milton. Beyond and above the Olympian gods lay the silent, brooding, everlasting fate of which victim and tyrant were alike the instruments. --Froude. 2. Appointed lot; allotted life; arranged or predetermined event; destiny; especially, the final lot; doom; ruin; death. The great, th'important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome. --Addison. Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown. --Shak. The whizzing arrow sings, And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings. --Pope. 3. The element of chance in the affairs of life; the unforeseen and unestimated conitions considered as a force shaping events; fortune; esp., opposing circumstances against which it is useless to struggle; as, fate was, or the fates were, against him. A brave man struggling in the storms of fate. --Pope. Sometimes an hour of Fate's serenest weather strikes through our changeful sky its coming beams. --B. Taylor. 4. pl. [L. Fata, pl. of fatum.] (Myth.) The three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, sometimes called the Destinies, or Parc[ae]who were supposed to determine the course of human life. They are represented, one as holding the distaff, a second as spinning, and the third as cutting off the thread. Note: Among all nations it has been common to speak of fate or destiny as a power superior to gods and men -- swaying all things irresistibly. This may be called the fate of poets and mythologists. Philosophical fate is the sum of the laws of the universe, the product of eternal intelligence and the blind properties of matter. Theological fate represents Deity as above the laws of nature, and ordaining all things according to his will -- the expression of that will being the law. --Krauth-Fleming. Syn: Destiny; lot; doom; fortune; chance.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(fates) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Fate is a power that some people believe controls and decides everything that happens, in a way that cannot be prevented or changed. You can also refer to the fates. I see no use quarrelling with fate. ...the fickleness of fate... It was just one of those times when you wonder whether the fates conspire against you. N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl 2. A person's or thing's fate is what happens to them. The Russian Parliament will hold a special session later this month to decide his fate... He seems for a moment to be again holding the fate of the country in his hands... The Casino, where she had often danced, had suffered a similar fate. = destiny N-COUNT: oft with poss 3. If something seals a person's or thing's fate, it makes it certain that they will fail or that something unpleasant will happen to them. The call for a boycott could be enough to seal the fate of next week's general election... to tempt fate: see tempt PHRASE: V inflects

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Destiny, destination, fatality, inevitable necessity. 2. Doom, lot, predetermined event. 3. Death, destruction. 4. Final event, ultimate fortune.

Moby Thesaurus

Friday, Friday the thirteenth, Heaven, Paradise, Z, a better place, accidentality, act of God, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, afterlife, afterworld, allocate, allot, allotment, allowance, apodosis, appoint, appointed lot, appropriate to, assign, assign to, astral influences, astrology, bane, big end, bigger half, bit, bite, book of fate, break, budget, casualness, catastrophe, ceasing, certainty, cessation, chance, chunk, circumstance, coda, collapse, commission, conclusion, consequence, constellation, consummation, contingent, crack of doom, culmination, cup, curtain, curtains, cut, deal, death, death knell, deathblow, decease, denouement, destinate, destination, destine, destiny, destruction, detail, determine, devote, dies funestis, disaster, disposition, dividend, dole, doom, downfall, earmark, effect, end, end point, ending, envoi, epilogue, equal share, eschatology, eternal home, expiration, fatality, fatefulness, final solution, final twitch, final words, finale, finality, finis, finish, flukiness, force majeure, 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, indefeasibility, indeterminacy, indeterminateness, ineluctability, inescapableness, inevasibleness, inevitability, inevitable accident, inevitableness, inexorability, inflexibility, interest, irrevocability, issue, izzard, karma, kismet, last, last breath, last gasp, last things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, law of averages, life, life after death, life to come, lot, luck, make assignments, mark, mark off, mark out for, measure, meed, mess, modicum, moiety, moira, necessity, nemesis, next world, omega, opportunity, ordain, otherworld, outcome, part, payoff, percentage, period, peroration, piece, planets, portion, portion off, postexistence, predetermination, preordain, principle of indeterminacy, probability, problematicness, proportion, providence, quantum, quietus, quota, rake-off, random sample, ration, relentlessness, reserve, resolution, resting place, restrict, restrict to, result, risk, ruin, run of luck, schedule, segment, serendipity, set, set apart, set aside, set off, share, slice, small share, stake, stars, statistical probability, stock, stoppage, stopping place, sureness, swan song, tag, 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, unavoidable casualty, unavoidableness, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, uncontrollability, undeflectability, undoing, unlucky day, unpreventability, unyieldingness, upshot, vis major, weird, what bodes, what is fated, whatever comes, wheel of fortune, will of Heaven, windup, world to come