Fate

How to spell fate

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fate

What does fate mean?

1. nounThe course of events or final outcome that is thought to be predetermined and beyond a person's control.
2. verbTo predetermine an outcome, usually with an unhappy or inevitable result.

Fate in a sentence

• noun

  The jury would decide the defendant's fate within the hour.

• verb

  The underfunded project seemed to fate the whole team to failure.

• noun

  A single delayed train sealed the fate of her interview.

• verb

  Poor planning can fate even a promising business to collapse.

Where does fate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin fatum, which literally meant 'a thing spoken' and so 'a prophetic declaration' or 'oracle', formed from fari, 'to speak'. Because the Romans believed the gods pronounced each person's destiny, the noun shifted from 'something said' to 'the destiny that has been decreed'. English took it in through Italian and Old French in the late 1300s, often coloured by the idea of the Fates, the three mythological sisters who were imagined spinning and cutting the thread of every life. The same fari root still hums inside relatives such as 'fable', 'fame', and 'infant' (literally one not yet able to speak). Remembering that fate is something 'spoken' over you helps keep its plain -ate spelling apart from its homophones 'fete' and 'feat'.

How the word is built

• fat- (from Latin fatum: that which has been spoken)
• -e