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

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

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of fatal¹

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

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.

Example Sentences

Jennifer Adkins and three other women were pregnant when they received almost certainly fatal fetal diagnoses.

From Slate

They and the physician plaintiffs seek to establish that Idaho’s law allows an abortion whenever a patient has a physical medical condition or complication that makes it unsafe to continue a pregnancy, has a condition exacerbated by pregnancy that can’t otherwise be easily treated, or is told about a fetal condition that is likely to be fatal after birth.

From Slate

Adkins builds on a line of cases involving women like Kate Cox, a Texas woman who traveled out of state to seek an abortion after receiving a diagnosis of trisomy 18, a fetal condition that is usually fatal; and Amanda Zurawski, also from Texas, who suffered the preterm rupture of membranes, a condition that led to a severe infection that almost killed her.

From Slate

Jennifer Adkins was pregnant with her second child when she was told that the child had multiple, likely fatal conditions—and that if that pregnancy continued, she was at high risk of suffering mirror syndrome, which could lead to life-threatening edema and eclampsia.

From Slate

Kayla Smith, another plaintiff, learned at a 19-week scan that her child had an inoperable and likely fatal heart condition.

From Slate

Related Words

• calamitous
• cataclysmic
• catastrophic
• destructive
• disastrous
• fateful
• incurable
• inevitable
• malignant
• mortal
• poisonous
• ruinous
• virulent