fateful

[ feyt-fuh l ]

/ ˈfeɪt fəl /

adjective

having momentous significance or consequences; decisively important; portentous: a fateful meeting between the leaders of the two countries.

fatal, deadly, or disastrous.

controlled or determined by destiny; inexorable.

prophetic; ominous.

Nearby words

Origin of fateful

First recorded in 1705–15; fate + -ful

SYNONYMS FOR fateful

1, 4. See ominous.

Related formsfate·ful·ly, adverbfate·ful·ness, noun

Can be confusedfatal fateful fetal (see synonym study at fatal)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fatefully

Fatefully, Wilson did not insist that American business stay neutral in deed.
A Noble Failure: Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency Considered|Michael Kazin|September 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Perhaps most fatefully, gone was any explicit pledge to formalize the agreement as a binding treaty next year.
Talk About a Climate Catastrophe|David Roberts|December 19, 2009|DAILY BEAST
But Pandit had many enablers for this fatefully wrong-headed decision: his board of directors.
Why Has Citigroup Banked on Richard Parsons?|Charlie Gasparino|January 27, 2009|DAILY BEAST
No service is done to an author like Stevenson by fatefully praising him for precisely the wrong thing.
Robert Louis Stevenson|Alexander H. Japp

They have a feel of fatally shutting down, fatefully closing in.
I, Mary MacLane|Mary MacLane
It was as if half a century of past time had fatefully for moments turned back.
Fresh Fields|John Burroughs
We pushed on past sentinels, motionless, silent, fatefully awake.
With the French in France and Salonika|Richard Harding Davis
Rufus continued heavily, fatefully, gathering force with every word, as a loosened rock beginning to roll down a mountain side.
The Tidal Wave and Other Stories|Ethel May Dell

British Dictionary definitions for fatefully

fateful

/ (ˈfeɪtfʊl) /

adjective

having important consequences; decisively important

bringing death or disaster

controlled by or as if by fate

prophetic

Derived Formsfatefully, adverbfatefulness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fatefully

fateful

adj.

1710s, "prophetic," from fate + -ful. Meaning "of momentous consequences" is from c.1800. Related: Fatefully.