Definition of fate
1
: the will or principle or determining cause by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do : destiny
- … fate sometimes deals a straight flush … he had no idea that he would become the right man in the right place at the right time …
- —June Goodfield
2 a
: an inevitable and often adverse outcome, condition, or end
- Her fate was to remain in exile.
3 a
: final outcome
- Congress decided the bill's fate by a single vote.
b
: the expected result of normal development
- prospective fate of embryonic cells
c
: the circumstances that befall someone or something
- did not know the fate of her former classmates
4
Fates plural
: the three goddesses, Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis, who determine the course of human life in classical mythology
