DESTINY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does destiny mean? 

• DESTINY (noun)
  The noun DESTINY has 3 senses:

1. an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future

2. the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman)

3. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

  Familiarity information: DESTINY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESTINY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

destiny; fate

Hypernyms ("destiny" is a kind of...):

happening; natural event; occurrence; occurrent (an event that happens)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "destiny"):

inevitable (an unavoidable event)

karma ((Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation)

kismat; kismet ((Islam) the will of Allah)

predestination (previous determination as if by destiny or fate)

day of reckoning; doom; doomsday; end of the world (an unpleasant or disastrous destiny)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

destiny; fate

Context example:

we are helpless in the face of destiny

Hypernyms ("destiny" is a kind of...):

causal agency; causal agent; cause (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)

Holonyms ("destiny" is a part of...):

occult; supernatural (supernatural forces and events and beings collectively)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion

Context example:

success that was her portion

Hypernyms ("destiny" is a kind of...):

condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "destiny"):

good fortune; good luck; luckiness (an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes)

providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)

bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)

failure (lack of success)

 Context examples 

I was not born for a different destiny to the rest of my species: to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale—a day-dream.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Be excited—everything about your big year, 2021, when you will be the celestial favorite, will be new and will be a force to help you fulfill your greatest dreams and your destiny.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

She was drawn by some force outside of herself and stronger than gravitation, strong as destiny.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In reference to our domestic preparations, madam, said Mr. Micawber, with some pride, for meeting the destiny to which we are now understood to be self-devoted, I beg to report them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was daring destiny, and he was unafraid.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was a placing of his destiny in another's hands, a shifting of the responsibilities of existence.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Its finder has carried it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who lost his Christmas dinner.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In one circumstance only, my Marianne, may your destiny be different from hers!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But the compassionate feelings of a friend of her father gave a change to her destiny.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But such is not my destiny; I must pursue and destroy the being to whom I gave existence; then my lot on earth will be fulfilled and I may die.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)