predestination

noun

pre·​des·​ti·​na·​tion (ˌ)prē-ˌde-stə-ˈnā-shən 

ˌprē-de-

1

: the act of predestinating : the state of being predestinated

2

: the doctrine that God in consequence of his foreknowledge of all events infallibly guides those who are destined for salvation

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

None of this amounts to spiritual predestination. —Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 24 Aug. 2021

From the moment the brackets were released last Sunday, a final meeting between Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State's Tom Izzo seemed like an act of basketball predestination — a necessary conclusion between two coaches that have met more times than any other pair in the NCAA Tournament. —David Thompson, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2022

That is how predestination works. —Washington Post, 14 Jan. 2022

Unitarians may have rejected the fire-breathing Calvinist notion of original sin, predestination, and damnation in favor of a more rational and gentler view of human nature, but the transcendentalists went further: all human inspiration was divine, all nature a miracle. —Brenda Wineapple, The New York Review of Books, 8 Apr. 2021

There's still room out there for a time-travel/alternate-reality story that really grapples with the issues of predestination. —Sean Carroll, Discover Magazine, 29 Dec. 2010

Unfortunately, there’s a feeling of predestination. —Fox News, 24 Aug. 2022

Those surreal face-to-face confrontations allow the filmmakers to pose a few playful questions about fate, predestination and human decency: What binds us to our alternate-universe counterparts, and what sets us apart from them? —Justin Changfilm Critic, Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2022

One was predestination; the other depressed a nation. —Washington Post, 16 Dec. 2021

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Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

predestination

noun

pre·​des·​ti·​na·​tion (ˌ)prē-ˌdes-tə-ˈnā-shən 

1

a

: the act of predestining

b

: the state of being predestined

2

: the doctrine that God has predestined some persons to eternal happiness and others to eternal punishment