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Fate vs Destiny vs Lot vs Portion vs Doom

Fate, destinylotportiondoom 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.

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.

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.

Lot and portion carry a strong implication 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.

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