destiny

What it means

1. That to which any person or thing is destined; a predetermined or inevitable eventual state; a condition predestined by the Divine or by human will.

   Death is the destiny of all mortal men.

   3 more examples

   Her death (April 18, 1881) left the Empress Ts‘ŭ Hsi, the playmate of her youth, the sole Regent of China, with the destiny of four hundred millions of human beings in her hands.

   1914, Li Ung Bing, “The Second Joint Regency of the Empress”, in Joseph Whiteside, editor, Outlines of Chinese History, Shanghai: The Commercial Press, →OCLC, page 565

   And nothing can keep him from me / He is my destiny

   1963, “I Will Follow Him”, Norman Gimbel (lyrics), Franck Pourcel (music), performed by Peggy March

   Ain't no use to fight it / Don't tamper with my destiny / Any way you slice it / I'm in the hands of fate, you see

   1977, The Originals, “Been Decided”, in Down to Love Town

   Synonyms: fate, lot, orlay, chance, destin, doom, fatality, fate

2. One's eventual fate (not necessarily inevitable or predestined).

   Everywhere the atom bombs are dropping / It's the end of all humanity / No more time for last-minute shopping / It's time to face your final destiny

   1986, "Weird Al" Yankovic, “Christmas at Ground Zero”, in Polka Party!

   1 more example

   Suspended between two ancient trees in some woody wonderland, the nearby brook babblingly bubbling to itself, the gently cooling breezes sweeping away all things bothersome, we self-sway each other to our own rhythms, and all our manifest destinies are ahhhsome.

   2016 June 27, Bernard Louis De Koven, “Hammocky Dreams”, in A Playful Path

3. The fixed order of things; invincible necessity; an irresistible power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual.

   Dara doesn't believe in using dating apps - she insists that destiny will find her other half.

   2 more examples

   There were two kinds of beardom opposed here, two futures, two destinies.

   1995, Philip Pullman, Northern Lights

   But it was much more than a mere ship. Its systems, processes, and technology were so advanced that they dwarfed every accomplishment of the Citadel species. Its grandeur and complexity rivaled the greatest creations of the Protheans—the mass relays and the Citadel. It may have even surpassed them. And if Saren could learn and understand how it worked, he could seize all that power for himself. He’d spent his entire life preparing for a moment like this. Everything he’d ever done—his military service, his career with the Spectres—was only a prelude to this revelation. Now he had found his true purpose; destiny had led him here.

   2007, Drew Karpyshyn, Mass Effect: Revelation (Science Fiction), Del Rey Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 320–321

   Synonyms: fate

In a sentence

Death is the destiny of all mortal men.

Where it comes from

1. Latindēstinō
2. Old Frenchdestinee
3. Middle Englishdestine
4. Englishdestiny

From Middle English destine et al., from Old French destinee, from Latin dēstinō (English destine). Displaced Old English wyrd.