Usage patterns 〈 人ひと 〉 の 宿しゅく 命めい someone's fate/destiny
宿しゅく 命めい を 負お う to bear/carry one's fate
He carried a heavy fate from birth.
宿しゅく 命めい に 立た ち 向む かう to confront one's fate
She resolved to confront her fate.
宿しゅく 命めい 的てき な 〈 事こと 〉 a fateful (event/encounter)
The two of them had a fateful encounter.
Kanji 宿 inn, lodging, relay station Related words· 7 運命 is the everyday, neutral word for fate or the course of one's life, while 宿命 stresses an inescapable, predetermined destiny.
天命 frames fate as a mandate given by heaven or a higher power, whereas 宿命 emphasizes the inescapability of what one is born into.
因縁 focuses on a karmic cause-and-effect link from the past, while 宿命 is the broader idea of an unavoidable destiny.
定め is a more literary, old-fashioned word for one's lot in life, close in weight to 宿命 but less common in modern speech.
Show 3 more Show fewer 宿命 is a predetermined fate seen as inevitable, while 業 specifically frames that fate as the karmic result of one's own past actions.
宿命 stresses a fate that was predetermined from birth and cannot be escaped, whereas 命運 focuses on the outcome of a critical moment or struggle.
宿命 emphasizes an inescapable, predetermined destiny, whereas 因果 emphasizes the karmic cause that produced that destiny.
Word family fateful; predestined
fatalism
Etymology Compound of 宿 (lodging, dwelling, or something that stays) and 命 (life, command, fate). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the combination suggests a fate that resides within or is assigned to a person from the start.
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