Meaning & use

doom

noun·Academic

A terrible fate that cannot be avoided, especially death, destruction, or total ruin.

See it in a sentence

The old sailors spoke of the reef as a place of doom for careless ships.

A sense of impending doom settled over the town as the storm clouds gathered.

A note on using this word

Doom is often paired with "impending" or "sense of" and carries a dramatic, fatalistic tone.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

Another way to use it

2. verb

To condemn someone or something to an unavoidable and usually unpleasant fate.

Poor soil and drought seemed to doom the harvest before it even began.

Make it your own

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