fated

1. 1
   adjective

   Settled in advance by fate and bound to happen because destiny has already determined the outcome.

   The hero's fated downfall was clear from the opening scene.

   Critics argued the empire's collapse seemed fated long before the war began.

   Similarpredestined, fateful

   Oppositeavoidable, accidental, random

   Note

   Before a noun it can carry a shadow of doom rather than neutral destiny. Martin Pengelly and Ramon Antonio Vargas, writing in 2024, describe Kristi Noem's "fated dog Cricket." Like predestined, it does not take degrees, so nothing is "very fated" or "more fated." After a verb it shades into the passive verb, as in Michael Robbins's 1951 railway scheme "fated to be forgotten."

2. 2
   verbrare

   Simple past and past participle of fate. Mostly passive, as in fated to fail; active use is rare.

   Some believed she was fated to lead the rebellion from birth.

   From the start, the two lovers seemed fated to part.

   Note

   The verb behind this form means to foreordain, and it takes an object, but active sentences with it are rare. Its natural home is the passive, in the pattern was fated to do something. There it blurs into the adjective "predetermined". One way to tell them apart is that the verb can name what did the fating, as in "fated by the gods." The adjective simply describes, as in "a fated meeting."

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