Primarily, a decree or word pronounced by God; or a fixed sentence by which the order of things is prescribed. Hence, inevitable necessity; destiny depending on a superior cause and uncontrollable. According to the Stoics, every event is determined by fate. Necessity or chancenot me; and what I will is fate.

Event predetermined; lot; destiny. It is our fate to meet with disappointments. It is the fate of mortals. Tell me what fates attend the duke of Suffolk?

Final event; death; destruction. Yet still he chose the longest way to fate. The whizzing arrow sings, And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings.

Cause of death. Dryden calls an arrow a feathered fate. Divine fate, the order or determination of God; providence.