fate

fate, destiny, lot, portion, doom are comparable when they denote the state, condition, or end which is decreed for one by a higher power.

Fate presupposes such a determining agent or agency as one of the ancient goddesses called Fates, the Supreme Being, or the law of necessity; the term usually suggests inevitability and, sometimes, immutability

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he either fears his fate too much, or his deserts are small, that dares not put it to the touch to gain or lose it all— Montrose

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let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate— Longfellow

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he maintained that the fate of the Southern Negro depended on his right to protect himself by voting—C. L. Thompson

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Destiny may imply an irrevocable determination or appointment (as by the will of the gods or of God); even in this sense, however, it carries little or no suggestion of something to be feared; on the contrary, it may even imply a great or noble state or end

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the conception of a lordly splendid destiny for the human race— Russell

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Lawrence was . . . unescapably an artist .... There were moments when he wanted to escape from his destiny— Huxley

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Destiny may also be applied to whatever one envisions as his end or goal, sometimes retaining a slight implication that it is, or has the inevitability of, the will of God

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the intoxication of victory swept Hitler's fears away; they were never voiced again, drowned with cries of defiant belief in his destiny— Times Lit. Sup.

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Lot and portion carry a strong inplication of distribution in the decreeing of one's fate.

Lot stresses the action of blind chance or as if by determination through the casting of lots, and portion, the more or less fair apportioning of good and evil

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it was her unhappy lot to be made more wretched by the only affection which she could not suspect— Conrad

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with whom would she be willing to exchange lots?—Bennett

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so has my portion been meted out to me; and ... I have . . . been able to comprehend some of the lessons hidden in the heart of pain— Wilde

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poverty was his portion all his days— Malone

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Doom, more than any of these words, implies a final and usually an unhappy or calamitous award or fate

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with the sea approaches lost, her [La Rochelle's] doom was certain— Belloc

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involution is as much a law of nature as evolution. There is no escape from this doom— Inge

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Analogous words: issue, outcome, upshot, consequence, result, Cffect: *end, ending, termination