fate
/feɪt/
fate noun: the presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events. Also the alternative letter-case form of Fate.
Noun
fate (countable and uncountable, plural fates)
- 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...1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
- The effect, consequence, outcome, or inevitable events predetermined by this cause.
- An event or a situation which is inevitable in the fullness of time.
- Synonyms:
- destiny
- Destiny; often with a connotation of death, ruin, misfortune, etc.
- Accept your fate.
- 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.2019 July 12, Danielle Freeman, “Archived copy”, in Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, archived from the original on 11 Oct 2022
- The mature endpoint of a region, group of cells or individual cell in an embryo, including all changes leading to that mature endpoint
- Synonyms:
- developmental pathway
Verb
fate (third-person singular simple present fates, present participle fating, simple past and past participle fated)
- 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.
- Before they met, Rebecca Guberman and Jennifer Jako were both certain they were fated to be alone.1999, Beverly Clark, Girlfriends, page 108
Proper noun capitalized: Fate
Fate
- Any one of the Fates.
- A personification of fate (the cause that predetermines events).
Also used as
fate is also the alternative letter-case form of Fate.
fate meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
fate in Hindi
- destiny
- क़िस्मत qismat, किस्मत kismat, नसीब nasīb, तक़दीर taqdīr, तकदीर takdīr, भाग्य bhāgya
- that which predetermines events
- क़िस्मत qismat, किस्मत kismat, नसीब nasīb, तक़दीर taqdīr, तकदीर takdīr, भाग्य bhāgya
fate in Urdu
- destiny
- قسمت qismat, تقدیر taqdīr
- that which predetermines events
- قِسْمَت qismat, تَقْدِیر taqdīr, مُقَدَّر muqaddar, نَصِیب nasīb, سَر نَوِشْت sar naviśt, بَخْت baxt
fate in Bengali
- that which predetermines events
- ভাগ্য bhaggo, নসীব nośib, নিয়তি niẏoti
fate in Malayalam
- destiny
- വിധി vidhi
- that which predetermines events
- വിധി vidhi, തലയിലെഴുത്ത് talayileḻuttŭ
- inevitable events
- വിധി vidhi
More languagesFewer languages
- fate in Punjabi
- ਲੇਖ lekh, ਕ਼ਿਸਮਤ qismat, ਤਕ਼ਦੀਰ taqdīr, لیکھ lekh
- fate in Gujarati
- નસીબ nasīb, કિસ્મત kismat, તકદીર takdīr, ભાગ્ય bhāgya
- fate in Sanskrit
- भाग्य bhāgya, दैव daiva, नियति niyati, अदृष्ट adṛṣṭa
- fate in Nepali
- भाग्य bhāgya
- fate in Pashto
- قسمت qəsmát, تقدير taqdir, برخليک barxlik
- fate in Tagalog
- tadhana
- fate in Arabic
- قِسْمَة qisma, مَصِير maṣīr, قَدَر qadar, تَقْدِير taqdīr
- fate in Malay
- nasib, takdir
- fate in Indonesian
- nasib, takdir
- fate in Thai
- พรหมลิขิต prom-lí-kìt, โชคชะตา chôok-chá-dtaa, เทวลิขิต, ดวง duuang
- fate in Vietnamese
- vận mệnh, túc mệnh, số phận, số mạng
- fate in Myanmar
- နဖူးစာ na.hpu:ca, ဖူးစာ hpu:ca, ကြမ္မာ kramma
Examples of fate in a sentence
- He resigned himself to his fate and began the long walk home to face his wife.
- I shouldn't tempt fate, but it looks like it's going to rain.
- "I'm sure everything will work out fine" — "Don't tempt fate!"
Synonyms of fate
- destiny
- natural order
- doom
- portion
- wyrd
- developmental pathway
- fatality
- foredoom
- foreordination
- fortune
10 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of fate
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fates |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fates |
| present participle | fating |
| past participle | fated |
| past | fated |
Origin of fate
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.
Words formed from fate
- as fate would have it
- cheat fate
- fatal
- fatalism
- fatality
- fated
- fate-fraught
- fatefraught
- fateful
- fateless
- fatelike
- fate map
- fatesome
- fickle finger of fate
- fucked by the fickle finger of fate
- leave someone to their fate
- quirk of fate
- red string of fate
- seal someone's fate
- sure as fate
- tempt fate
- twist of fate
Phrases with fate
Words that rhyme with fate
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mate
- late
- bate
- create
- date
- relate
- vibrate
- wait
- deflate
- migrate
- rebate
- rotate
- strait
- supererogate
- translocate
- await
- eight
- freight
- skate
- alternate
- collate
- debate
- inflate
- sedate
- update
- compensate
- delate
- dilate
- fixate
- grate
- Haight
- hate
- implicate
- innate
- intercalate
- locate
- mandate
- negate
- overweight
- pinnate
- quadrate
- tate
- vacate
- aerate
- calibrate
- castrate
- conflate
- crate
Questions about fate
- What does fate mean?
- Fate means the presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events.
- What is fate in Hindi?
- Fate in Hindi is क़िस्मत (qismat), किस्मत (kismat), नसीब (nasīb). See Fate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is fate?
- Fate can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce fate?
- Fate is pronounced /feɪt/.
- What is the plural of fate?
- The plural of fate is fates.
Words near fate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fate (page history and authors); Fate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fate.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.