fatal
causing destruction, misfortune, ruin, or failure: The withdrawal of funds was fatal to the project.
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.
Origin of fatal
1synonym study For fatal
Other words for fatal
2 | ruinous, disastrous, calamitous, catastrophic, devastating |
4 | predestined, foreordained |
Opposites for fatal
Other words from fatal
- fa·tal·ness, noun
- non·fa·tal, adjective
- non·fa·tal·ly, adverb
- non·fa·tal·ness, noun
- quasi-fatal, adjective
- qua·si-fa·tal·ly, adverb
Words that may be confused with fatal
Words Nearby fatal
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use fatal in a sentence
Fairfax County police are searching for a suspect believed to have fled the scene of a fatal shooting in Reston on Wednesday afternoon.
Police looking for suspect who fled scene of homicide Wednesday in Reston | Justin Jouvenal | February 10, 2021 | Washington PostWe found that fatal crashes were occurring all over the country.
What We Learned from Tracking Cycling Deaths for a Year | Maura Fox and Luke Whelan | January 29, 2021 | Outside OnlineI was impressed not just with her work as a doctor but her zeal for busting open the paradigm for a cancer that is particularly hard to detect, hard to treat, and therefore often fatal.
How to Fix the Incentives in Cancer Research (Ep. 449) | Stephen J. Dubner | January 28, 2021 | FreakonomicsRoessler’s tenure in Fairfax was marked by the fatal 2013 shooting of John Geer and, more recently, the anger over police practices across the country that was sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Ex-Fairfax police chief Rohrer steps in to temporarily lead department | Antonio Olivo | January 27, 2021 | Washington PostIf you can recognize the sequence, you and a better chance of resisting the impulse to take those next potentially fatal steps.
How to survive three days in the wild | By Keith McCafferty/Field & Stream | January 26, 2021 | Popular-Science
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.
Pope Francis Denounces the Vatican Elite’s 'Spiritual Alzheimer’s' | Barbie Latza Nadeau | December 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAccording to a police source, that fax came in at 2:46 p.m.—literally a after before the fatal bullets flew.
Alleged Cop Killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley Had a Death Wish | M.L. Nestel | December 22, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAnother American officer, Capt. Edwin Glenn, was convicted of cruelty in a non-fatal turn-of-the-century case in the Philippines.
The Luxury Homes That Torture and Your Tax Dollars Built | Michael Daly | December 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt is here that the Communist regime in Russia has encountered its most fatal difficulty.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) WellsIt was a fatal error, for though the Spanish people might despise their King, they were intensely proud of their nationality.
Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-PattisonWhen 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.
God and my Neighbour | Robert BlatchfordThe meeting took place within twenty-four hours; unfortunately the result was fatal.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James Wills
British Dictionary definitions for fatal
/ (ˈfeɪtəl) /
resulting in or capable of causing death: a fatal accident
bringing ruin; disastrous
decisively important; fateful
decreed by fate; destined; inevitable
Origin of fatal
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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