fate

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events.

   Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

2. 2
   noun

   Destiny; often with a connotation of death, ruin, misfortune, etc.

   Accept your fate.

3. 3
   noun

   The products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.

   It’s important to research chemical fate because chemical fate is the best tool we have for understanding and managing human health risks or environmental damage caused by chemical release.

4. 4
   verb

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future

6. 6
   noun

   the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman)

7. 7
   noun

   your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

8. 8
   verb

   decree or designate beforehand

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.