fatal
Americanadjective
-
causing or capable of causing death; mortal; deadly.
a fatal accident;
a fatal dose of poison.
- Antonyms:
- life-giving
-
causing destruction, misfortune, ruin, or failure.
The withdrawal of funds was fatal to the project.
- Synonyms:
- devastating, catastrophic, calamitous, disastrous, ruinous
-
decisively important; fateful.
The fatal day finally arrived.
-
proceeding from or decreed by fate; inevitable.
a fatal series of events.
-
influencing or concerned with fate; fatalistic.
-
Obsolete. condemned by fate; doomed.
-
Obsolete. prophetic.
adjective
-
resulting in or capable of causing death
a fatal accident
-
bringing ruin; disastrous
-
decisively important; fateful
-
decreed by fate; destined; inevitable
Usage
What does fatal mean? Fatal literally means deadly—capable of causing death. Similar words are deadly, lethal, and mortal—though they are often used in different ways. Fatal can also be used in a figurative way to mean capable of causing the destruction, ruin, or failure of someone or something, as in Failing to update their products proved to be a fatal mistake for the company. Example: These changes will hopefully greatly reduce the number of fatal car accidents that occur on highways.
Synonym Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fatal
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English or directly from Old French, from Latin fātālis “ordained by fate, decreed”; see origin at fate, -al 1
Explanation
The adjective fatal describes something that is capable of causing death. Certain cleaning products, for instance, are labeled, “Could be fatal if swallowed.” Here's a helpful suggestion: don't swallow them. Can you hear the word fate in fatal? In ancient times, people believed that the future was determined by a force called fate, and in the 14th century, the French used the word fatal to describe anything that fate had decreed, including death. By the next century the word had evolved to mean something that specifically causes death. Today the term is used more loosely. If your friend makes a fatal mistake on the tennis court, it doesn't mean that he'll literally die, just that he'll lose the game.
Vocabulary lists containing fatal
"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nationally, National Transportation Safety Board data show that 16 people have died in eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the United States since 2000.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
But for children with heart conditions, the consequences can be fatal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
E-commerce giant Amazon says it is suspending work with the firm that operated a cargo plane that was involved in a fatal crash in Miami this month.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Most notably, “Practical Magic 2” is kneecapped by a fatal flaw that plagues almost all of these legacy sequels, but this one especially: It’s positively unsightly to look at.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
Victims of the flu often developed a secondary pneumonia caused by pneumococcus—an illness so rapid and fatal that doctors had termed it the “captain of the men of death.”
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
