predestinate

[pri-des-tuh-neyt, pri-des-tuh-nit, -neyt]

verb (used with object)

predestinated, predestinating 

1. Theology.,  to foreordain by divine decree or purpose.

2. Obsolete.,  to foreordain; predetermine.

adjective

1. predestined; foreordained.

predestinate

verb

1. (tr) another word for predestine

adjective

1. predestined or foreordained

2. theol subject to predestination; decided by God from all eternity

Other Word Forms

• predestinately adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of predestinate¹

1350–1400; Middle English predestinaten (v.) < Latin praedestinātus, past participle of praedestināre to appoint beforehand. See pre-, destine, -ate ¹

Example Sentences

The criminal always work at one crime—that is the true criminal who seems predestinate to crime, and who will of none other.

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About a century and half later, even the wise Defoe wrote in his London plague novel that Turks and Mahometans “professed predestinating Notions, and of every Man’s End being predetermined.”

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She thanked and complimented him warmly, but without being very much astonished at his success, for she began to think he was predestinated.

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It is unreasonable to suppose that because God has predestinated all events, we need not take any step in the matter of our salvation.

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We are “predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.”

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Related Words

• foreordain