doom

doom — noun

1. a terrible future event, such as death, destruction, or complete failure, that c

1.nounB2
Definition

a terrible future event, such as death, destruction, or complete failure, that cannot be prevented or escaped

Example

The townspeople knew the rising flood waters spelled doom for their village.

collocation: spell doom for

A heavy sense of doom settled over the team as their opponents scored again.

collocation: sense of doom

Common collocations
  • spell doom
  • sense of doom
  • meet one's doom
  • face one's doom
  • seal one's doom
  • escape one's doom
  • send to one's doom
Synonyms
  • fate

    neutral — can be good or bad; less dramatic than doom

  • destruction

    concrete and physical; focuses on the act of being ruined rather than the inevitability

  • ruin

    suggests a gradual process of decline rather than a sudden unavoidable end

Antonyms

Common Mistakes

The soldiers marched to their fate' (when meaning certain death).
The soldiers marched to their doom.
'fate' can be good or neutral, but 'doom' is always negative and final.
Idioms

doom and gloom | gloom and doom

idiom

A feeling or attitude that everything is bad and will not improve.

Despite the rain, the picnic was not all doom and gloom.

Is the economic report really full of gloom and doom?

prophet of doom | doom merchant

idiom

A person who always says that bad things will happen in the future.

Maya called him a prophet of doom for predicting the project would fail.

Doom merchants warned that the new policy would hurt small businesses.

doom — verb

Word family

  • doomed
    adjectiveB2
  • doomsday
    nounB2
  • doom-laden
    adjectiveC1
  • doomsayer
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Doom, fate, destiny, and ruin all refer to outcomes in a person's life, but they differ in tone and scope. Doom always carries a sense of unavoidable destruction or a terrible end — it is never positive. Fate is broader: it can be good or bad and suggests a predetermined outcome without necessarily implying destruction. Destiny overlaps with fate but often carries a grander, more positive tone relating to one's purpose or life purpose. Ruin focuses on physical or material collapse — a building can fall into ruin, a person can face financial ruin — whereas doom relates to a final, catastrophic end often involving death or complete failure. For example, 'the soldiers marched to their doom' implies certain death; 'she felt it was her fate to become a doctor' is neutral or positive; 'building his company was his destiny' suggests a meaningful purpose; and 'the old house fell into ruin' describes physical decay.

doom ↗fate ↗destiny ↗ruin ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

Prepositions

Etymology

Old EnglishMiddle EnglishModern English

Doom comes from the Old English word dōm, meaning 'law, judgment, or decree.' In early English, a person's doom was simply the legal or moral judgment passed on them. Over time, especially through religious use in the phrase 'doomsday' (the day of final judgment), the word took on a darker meaning — the punishment or terrible fate that follows judgment. By the 1600s, doom had come to mean any unavoidable destruction or disaster, not just a legal or divine sentence.