Word.ws English Dictionary

in the cards

in the cards prepositional phrase: destined or fated to happen; predicted or foreseen.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Destined or fated to happen; predicted or foreseen.
    • I don't think another child is in the cards for them.
    • You will not sell enough to put in your eye. It is not in the cards.1947, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropriations, Government Corporations Appropriation Bill for 1948, page 31

Origin of in the cards

Referring to the reading of tarot cards to foresee the future.

Questions about in the cards

What does in the cards mean?
In the cards means destined or fated to happen; predicted or foreseen.
What part of speech is in the cards?
In the cards is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the cards in the dictionary

  1. in the bottom of the bag
  2. in the bucket
  3. in the buff
  4. in the business of
  5. in the can
  6. in the cards
  7. in the clear
  8. in the closet
  9. in the clouds
  10. in the club
  11. in the cold light of day

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the cards (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-in the cards.ogg.

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