fateful
Americanadjective
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having momentous significance or consequences; decisively important; portentous.
a fateful meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
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fatal, deadly, or disastrous.
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controlled or determined by destiny; inexorable.
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prophetic; ominous.
adjective
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having important consequences; decisively important
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bringing death or disaster
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controlled by or as if by fate
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prophetic
Related Words
See ominous.
Other Word Forms
- fatefully adverb
- fatefulness noun
Etymology
Origin of fateful
Explanation
A fateful moment is one that seems impossible to avoid. And when a fateful event occurs, it feels like it will have a big impact on your future — and usually not in a good way. “I can fit my head into this jar!” — fateful words that resulted in a trip to the hospital. Most of the time, fateful spells disaster. There was the fateful day you left your guinea pig’s cage door open, and there are fateful decisions that seem innocent at the time, but come back to haunt you later. Fate is the idea that your life is mapped out, and a fateful instance is one significant landmark on that map.
Vocabulary lists containing fateful
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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I Am Malala
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
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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.
The Southport Inquiry was set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack and the events leading up to that fateful day.
From BBC • Apr. 11, 2026
One fateful September afternoon, I received a message on Upwork.
From Slate • Mar. 20, 2026
She and director Cristina Costantini chronicled that fateful day in the short film ‘La Tierra del Valor,’ or ‘The Home of the Brave.’
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2026
It was a fateful decision, setting in motion a series of events that left them confronting the hardest decision of their lives.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026
For a single, fateful night, Johnston had been on the mountain.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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.
