MEANING
To decide or fix something in advance, before later events or choices can affect it.
Use it for
describing decisions fixed before consultation; questioning whether a procedure genuinely permits alternative outcomes; explaining how prior conditions constrain a later resultDistinguishes an outcome fixed by earlier decisions or conditions from one merely predicted in advance. Academic functions: Causation / Relationships.
Words that belong together
- predetermine the outcome
- predetermine the result
- a predetermined conclusion
On the page
The evaluation should not predetermine its conclusion before examining the evidence.
Earlier contractual commitments may predetermine which policy options remain available.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- predetermine
- Past tense
- predetermined
- Past participle
- predetermined
- Present participle
- predetermining
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- predetermine
- Present continuous
- am/is/are predetermining
- Present perfect
- have/has predetermined
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been predetermining
- Past
- predetermined
- Past continuous
- was/were predetermining
- Past perfect
- had predetermined
- Past perfect continuous
- had been predetermining
- Future
- will predetermine
- Future continuous
- will be predetermining
- Future perfect
- will have predetermined
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been predetermining
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive. Third-person predetermines; past and past participle predetermined; present participle predetermining. Often passive: predetermined by or predetermined before. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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