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 Word Forms

• fatalness noun
• nonfatal adjective
• nonfatally adverb
• nonfatalness noun
• quasi-fatal adjective
• quasi-fatally 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

A Florida woman is awaiting trial in California where she is accused of delivering fatal butt injections to a Kim Kardashian look-alike.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The uncertainty and confusion in the Scottish ranks was not just alarming, it looked like it was going to be fatal to their World Cup dream.

Read more on BBC

There’s no getting around the potentially fatal blow to Tory credibility inflicted by the party’s most recent 14-year stint in power.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

“You always step in . . . always . . . your mates, my mates, my people,” Jacob says, and rushes to the fore, landing a single punch on a stranger that proves unexpectedly fatal.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

"The purpose of the fatal accident inquiry is to find answers to the many questions Lyndsay-Anne has about her brother's death," he added.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

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

When To Use

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.