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
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 hilarious essay on Allen Ginsberg describes a fateful night in 1958 that Podhoretz spent arguing with the manic poet himself as Jack Kerouac sat silently by.
In August last year, his father received a fateful phone call: "Are you Mr Balde? Do you have a son who is in Morocco?" the voice on the other end asked.
From Barron's
More details are emerging about that fateful weekend, but a full accounting of what transpired has yet to be revealed.
From Los Angeles Times
And after the funeral, Jay runs into the former friend who brought him to that fateful audition as emotional support — and who remains bitter that Jay got the role and “stole his life.”
From Los Angeles Times
What came shortly after “Mellon Collie” and the fateful 1996 tour was nothing short of chaos.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
