fate means any one of the Fates. It carries an Arena rating of 1724, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, fate ranks #44 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #67 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #576 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,273 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
fate is pronounced /feɪt/.
Why “fate” is a great word
The predetermined and unavoidable course of events, believed to be ordained by a cosmic principle or divine agency. From Middle English fate, from Latin fātum ('thing spoken, prediction, decree'), neuter of fātus ('spoken'), past participle of fārī ('to speak'). Unlike 'choice,' which implies free selection and agency, or 'chance,' which denotes random accident, fate is the fixed script. It is the oracle's murmured sentence, the railway switch thrown by invisible hands, and the slow grinding of millstones that cannot be halted. The word itself carries the quiet, immense weight of a story already spoken in rooms one will never enter.
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.
name
- Any one of the Fates.
- A personification of fate (the cause that predetermines events).
noun
- The presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events.
- The effect, consequence, outcome, or inevitable events predetermined by this cause.
- An event or a situation which is inevitable in the fullness of time.
- Destiny; often with a connotation of death, ruin, misfortune, etc.e.g.“Accept your fate.”
- The products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.e.g.“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
verb
- To foreordain or predetermine, to make inevitable.e.g.“The oracle's prediction fated Oedipus to kill his father; not all his striving could change what would occur.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).