fatalist

[ feyt-l-ist ]

noun
  1. a person who believes that all events are inevitable, so one’s choices and actions make no difference:Protest or not, the odds seem stacked against the likelihood of change, so should we be fatalists and go off to the beach instead?

  2. Philosophy. a person who advances the idea that all events are naturally predetermined or subject to fate: Despite his teaching that class conflict is inevitable, observers contend that Marx was not a fatalist about historical change.

adjective
  1. Rare. fatalistic.

Origin of fatalist

1
First recorded in 1640–50; fatal(ism) + -ist

Words Nearby fatalist

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use fatalist in a sentence

  • King was a fatalist, resigned to whatever happened, telling aides he had no choice in how he would die, or when.

  • They didn't want a labourer now, but the Oracle was a vague fatalist, and Mitchell a decided one.

    Over the Sliprails | Henry Lawson
  • The old fatalist had accepted the worst, and now he waited for doom to descend.

    Riders of the Silences | John Frederick
  • So saying, the gloomy fatalist turned from her, and stalked off with sullen composure to the place of confinement allotted to him.

    The Abbot | Sir Walter Scott
  • It is bad to be a fatalist unless one has an incontrovertible belief in one's destiny,—which Hannah had not.

  • He was somewhat of a fatalist in his interpretation of affairs and would hang on with the faith that his luck would turn.

    The "Genius" | Theodore Dreiser