noun
doom
doom
noun
1
A terrible fate that seems certain and impossible to avoid, especially death or destruction.
"The old sailors spoke of the ship's doom in hushed voices."
"A sense of doom hung over the abandoned town."
verb
1
To condemn someone or something to a certain, usually terrible, fate.
"The failed harvest doomed the village to a hard winter."
"Poor planning doomed the project from the start."
How to Use Doom
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA terrible, unavoidable outcome, or to seal something into that fate.
Common pairings
sense of doom
doomed to fail
impending doom
Word Forms
doomed past tense, dooms plural, dooms singular
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The old sailors spoke of the ship's _____ in hushed voices.
Etymology
From Old English dom, meaning "judgment" — the same root survives in the legal sense of "deem" and originally referred to a court's ruling before it narrowed to mean a grim fate.