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View synonyms for fatal

fatal

[ feyt-l ]

adjective

  1. causing or capable of causing death; mortal; deadly:

    a fatal accident;

    a fatal dose of poison.

    Antonyms: life-giving

  2. causing destruction, misfortune, ruin, or failure:

    The withdrawal of funds was fatal to the project.

    Synonyms: devastating, catastrophic, calamitous, disastrous, ruinous

  3. decisively important; fateful:

    The fatal day finally arrived.

  4. proceeding from or decreed by fate; inevitable:

    a fatal series of events.

  5. influencing or concerned with fate; fatalistic.
  6. Obsolete. condemned by fate; doomed.
  7. Obsolete. prophetic.


fatal

/ ˈfeɪtəl /

adjective

  1. resulting in or capable of causing death

    a fatal accident

  2. bringing ruin; disastrous
  3. decisively important; fateful
  4. decreed by fate; destined; inevitable


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Other Words From

  • fatal·ness noun
  • non·fatal adjective
  • non·fatal·ly adverb
  • non·fatal·ness noun
  • quasi-fatal adjective
  • quasi-fatal·ly adverb

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Word History and Origins

Origin of fatal1

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English or directly from Old French, from Latin fātālis “ordained by fate, decreed”; fate, -al 1

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Word History and Origins

Origin of fatal1

C14: from Old French fatal or Latin fātālis , from fātum , see fate

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Synonym Study

Fatal, deadly, lethal, mortal apply to something that has caused or is capable of causing death. Fatal may refer to either the future or the past; in either case, it emphasizes inevitability and the inescapable—the disastrous, whether death or dire misfortune: The accident was fatal. Such a mistake would be fatal. Deadly looks to the future, and suggests that which is likely to cause death (though not inevitably so): a deadly poison, disease. Like deadly, lethal looks to the future but, like many other words of Latin origin, suggests a more technical usage: a lethal dose; a gas that is lethal. Mortal looks to the past and refers to death that has actually occurred: He received a mortal wound. The disease proved to be mortal.

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Example Sentences

Nor should we ever assume that weather alone, however extreme, should be fatal to a commercial flight.

Two years ago, a Party apparatchik surveyed the site of a fatal traffic accident… with a smile on his face.

They are mean, unhappy and inspired only by their fatal selfishness.

According to a police source, that fax came in at 2:46 p.m.—literally a after before the fatal bullets flew.

Another American officer, Capt. Edwin Glenn, was convicted of cruelty in a non-fatal turn-of-the-century case in the Philippines.

It is here that the Communist regime in Russia has encountered its most fatal difficulty.

It was a fatal error, for though the Spanish people might despise their King, they were intensely proud of their nationality.

When there wanted only a week to the fatal day, Michael's hope of meeting the note of hand was slighter than ever.

That is a very lofty, poetical, and gratifying conception, but it is open to one fatal objection—it is not true.

The meeting took place within twenty-four hours; unfortunately the result was fatal.

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Fatahfatal four