the Fates

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

fate /feɪt/   n. 

1. something that unavoidably happens to a person;
   one's fortune or lot:
   [countable* usually singular] The judge decided her fate.
2. the power by which events are thought to be decided;
   destiny:
   [uncountable] By a strange twist of fate, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826.
3. ultimate outcome;
   final course or state:
   [countable] the fate of a political campaign.
4. death, destruction, or ruin:
   [uncountable] They met their fate on the battlefield.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

fate  (fāt), n., v., fat•ed, fat•ing. 
n. 

1. something that unavoidably befalls a person;
   fortune;
   lot:
   It is always his fate to be left behind.
2. the universal principle or ultimate agency by which the order of things is presumably prescribed;
   the decreed cause of events;
   time:
   Fate decreed that they would never meet again.
3. that which is inevitably predetermined;
   destiny:
   Death is our ineluctable fate.
4. a prophetic declaration of what must be:
   The oracle pronounced their fate.
5. death, destruction, or ruin.
6. Mythology the Fates, [Class. Myth.] the three goddesses of destiny, known to the Greeks as the Moerae and to the Romans as the Parcae.

v.t. 

7. to predetermine, as by the decree of fate;
   destine (used in the passive):
   a person who was fated to be the savior of the country.

• Latin fātum utterance, decree of fate, destiny, origin, originally neuter of fātus, past participle of fārī to speak
• Middle English 1325–75

Synonyms

• 1. karma, kismet; chance, luck.
  Fate, destiny, doom refer to the idea of a fortune, usually adverse, that is predetermined and inescapable. The three words are frequently interchangeable.
  Fate stresses the irrationality and impersonal character of events:
  It was Napoleon's fate to be exiled.
  The word is often lightly used, however:
  It was my fate to meet her that very afternoon.
  Destiny emphasizes the idea of an unalterable course of events, and is often used of a propitious fortune:
  It was his destiny to save his nation.
  Doom esp. applies to the final ending, always unhappy or terrible, brought about by destiny or fate:
  He met his doom bravely.
• 7. foreordain, preordain.