Ananke
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Necessity beyond all supplications or sway. Conceived as the ultimate dictator of all fate and circumstances, to which even the gods must ultimately pay homage and deference. uncountable
- 1 A Greek goddess, personification of destiny, necessity and fate, depicted as holding a spindle. Greek
"“‘To tell you that the eternities beget chaos, and that the immensities are at the mercy of the divine ananke. Infinitude crouches before a personality. The mercurial essence is the prime mover in spirituality, and the thinker is powerless before the pulsating inanity. The cosmical procession is terminated only by the unknowable and unpronounceable’——"
- 2 A moon of Jupiter.
Example
More examples"“‘To tell you that the eternities beget chaos, and that the immensities are at the mercy of the divine ananke. Infinitude crouches before a personality. The mercurial essence is the prime mover in spirituality, and the thinker is powerless before the pulsating inanity. The cosmical procession is terminated only by the unknowable and unpronounceable’——"
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἀνάγκη (anánkē, “necessity”).
From Ancient Greek Ἀνάγκη (Anánkē, “Fate”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.