as in to destine
to determine the fate of in advance
we are such good friends, it's almost like we were foreordained to meet
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of foreordain
Wagner commented that in opera the orchestra should act as a medium of premonition, indicating what is foreordained but not yet foreseen.
—
Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
Before anything else is said about Lana Del Rey’s new album, let it be noted that however well the record came out, it was foreordained to come in second among her artistic works of the past year.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 24 Mar. 2023
Pelosi is more than happy for additional evidence to be disclosed and for the Senate to call witnesses, even after the House has impeached and when the resolution of the trial is foreordained.
—Matthew Continetti, National Review, 17 Jan. 2020
The outcome was not foreordained, for either Bork or Mr. Biden.
—Alexander Burns, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2019
The 41st president, who couldn’t always get his sentences straight, wasn’t foreordained for history’s hall of fame.
—Josef Joffe, WSJ, 3 Dec. 2018
Aster piles on the personal confrontations and emotional breakdowns, but compounds them with unnerving new hauntings, all the way up to an ending that feels foreordained, but still shattering.
—Tasha Robinson, The Verge, 8 June 2018
Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
Before anything else is said about Lana Del Rey’s new album, let it be noted that however well the record came out, it was foreordained to come in second among her artistic works of the past year.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 24 Mar. 2023
Pelosi is more than happy for additional evidence to be disclosed and for the Senate to call witnesses, even after the House has impeached and when the resolution of the trial is foreordained.
—Matthew Continetti, National Review, 17 Jan. 2020
The outcome was not foreordained, for either Bork or Mr. Biden.
—Alexander Burns, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2019
The 41st president, who couldn’t always get his sentences straight, wasn’t foreordained for history’s hall of fame.
—Josef Joffe, WSJ, 3 Dec. 2018
Aster piles on the personal confrontations and emotional breakdowns, but compounds them with unnerving new hauntings, all the way up to an ending that feels foreordained, but still shattering.
—Tasha Robinson, The Verge, 8 June 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for foreordain
Verb
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The canonical work of Edward Curtis established the tragic view and elegiac rhetoric of Native people as noble savages unassimilable to Progress and hence destined for cultural, if not biological, extinction.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 Sep. 2025
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The pair's emotional journey was captured in a viral TikTok video with over 1 million likes, a story that internet viewers believe was destined to happen.—
Maria Morava,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Qualified people who could be priests except for archaic laws that no longer serve us continue to wait to be invited into the ranks of those who have been ordained.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
23 Aug. 2025
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The move also contrasts with Pope Francis, who said no to moving into the papal apartments when he was ordained in 2013, choosing instead a Vatican guesthouse.—
Greg Wehner , Emma Bussey,
FOXNews.com,
20 Aug. 2025
Verb
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If you’re doomed to go 4-8 again, give the locals something to cling to while they’re stuck riding over the bumps.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
13 Sep. 2025
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The combination of strange comments, a clear lack of education and experience, and a disturbing personal history with mental health struggles and domestic problems doomed his campaign.—
Kimberly Ross,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Libra Season paired with Mars in Scorpio is about teamwork that feels fated, partnerships that feel like destiny, and art that heals the collective.—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
29 Aug. 2025
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But these issues will be resolved because more viable donor organs, whether from humans, other species or created in a lab, means fewer people will be fated to sit (and perhaps die) on a transplant waiting list.—
David A. Brenner,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
22 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Foreordain.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/foreordain. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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