Definition

1. Noun:
   • The predetermined course of events: The idea that events are fixed in advance and cannot be changed, often thought of as a power or agency that controls what happens in the future.
   • The events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future: What someone or something is destined to be or do; one's ultimate lot or fortune in life.

Examples

• Noun:
  • She believed it was her destiny to become a great leader. (She felt it was predetermined that she would become a great leader.)
  • The two friends felt their meeting was more than coincidence; it was destiny. (They felt their meeting was a fated event.)
  • He accepted his destiny with quiet resignation. (He accepted the future that was meant for him without complaint.)

Advanced Usage

• "A twist of destiny": An unexpected and often significant turn of events that seems fated.
  • A twist of destiny brought the long-lost siblings together. (An unforeseen fated event caused them to meet.)
• "To be in the hands of destiny": To be subject to the uncontrollable forces of fate.
  • With the final decision made, the outcome was now in the hands of destiny. (The result was now beyond anyone's control, left to fate.)
• "To fulfill one's destiny": To achieve or live out the future one was meant to have.
  • The artist felt she had finally fulfilled her destiny with her latest masterpiece. (She felt she had achieved what she was always meant to.)

Variants and Related Words

• Destined (adj): Having a future that has been decided or predetermined.
  • He seemed destined for greatness from a young age.
• Destine (verb): To intend or choose for a particular purpose or fate (often used in passive voice).
  • The funds were destined for charitable work.
• Predestination (n): The doctrine that all events have been willed by God, or the action of God in ordaining future events.

Synonyms

• Fate: The development of events beyond a person's control, often with a sense of inevitability and finality.
• Fortune: Chance or luck as an external force affecting human affairs; also, the good or bad things that happen to someone.
• Lot: A person's luck, fate, or condition in life.
• Providence: The protective care of God or nature as a spiritual power; often implies benevolent guidance.

Related Phrases

• "Seal someone's destiny": To decisively determine the future course of events for someone.
  • That one mistake sealed his destiny. (That mistake fixed his future irrevocably.)
• "A date with destiny": An upcoming event or moment that is expected to be of crucial, fated importance.
  • The championship game was their date with destiny. (The game was the crucial, fated moment they had been moving toward.)

Related Idioms

• "Man of destiny": A person believed to be destined to achieve great things or change the course of history.
  • Many saw the young general as a man of destiny.
• "Tempt fate/destiny": To act in a way that risks causing something bad to happen, as if challenging fate.
  • Driving that fast on icy roads is tempting destiny.

Noun

1. 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
2. the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman)
   • we are helpless in the face of destiny
3. an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future