To predetermine something is to decide or arrange it before it happens, so it does not happen by chance. A teacher may predetermine the topics. A meeting may have a predetermined length because someone predetermined it. Though actually, the word can sound cold, as if a person or a system locked the ending. Scientists also use it without a villain: the result was predetermined by the starting conditions — the setup left only one way for things to fall. It is more formal than “decide in advance” or “fix ahead of time,” which is what most people say. It is not predict. Predict is a guess about the future. Predetermine is making (or having) the future already decided.

預先決定、事先訂好。