Definition of "foreordained"

His early interest in the law and politics competed with a call to the ministry and his budding sideline as a rock-and-roll drummer, pianist and composer. But when his demo tapes were lost and his application to divinity school was turned down, he sensed that his career in law was foreordained.

2018 February 20, Adam Bernstein, “J. Clay Smith Jr., forceful EEOC leader and Howard University law dean, dies at 75”, in The Washington Post‎, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, archived from the original on 2019-10-31

In 1989, when Vice President Dan Quayle nonsensically remarked that "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change," we all dutifully relished the gaffe. But he turns out to have been right. What once seemed foreordained has mysteriously slipped our grasp.

2020 March 9, Ivan Krastev, “Of course they gave up on democracy”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, archived from the original on 2023-03-27

The story is both a fable of power and, as Clark explains, the beginning of the understanding of history as a foreordained "sequence of hegemonies".

2021 August 10, Andrew Anthony, “Prisoners of Time by Christopher Clark review – bravura examination of political power”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 2023-05-17

[Donald] Trump's sleaziness, like everything else in this train wreck, was completely foreordained—and, again, [Chris] Licht and his producers had to know it.

2023 May 11, Tom Nichols, “CNN Went Full ’Jerry Springer’”, in The Atlantic‎, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, archived from the original on 14 May 2023