fatal
AdjectiveUS[fey-tuhl]/ˈfeɪtəl/2 syllables
Open English WordNet
Adjective (4)
- bringing deathOpposite nonfatalSimilar deadly, terminal
- having momentous consequences; of decisive importance“that fateful meeting of the U.N. when … it declared war on North Korea — Saturday Rev”“the fatal day of the election finally arrived”Synonyms: fatefulOpposite indecisiveSimilar decisive
- (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin“the stock market crashed on Black Friday”“a calamitous defeat”“the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign”“such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory — Charles Darwin”“it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it — Douglas MacArthur”“a fateful error”Synonyms: blackcalamitousdisastrousfatefulOpposite fortunateSimilar unfortunate
- controlled or decreed by fate; predetermined“a fatal series of events”Synonyms: fatefulOpposite avertableSimilar inevitable
Word of the day · Nov 1About this word
benevolentadjective
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Adjective causing death
Adjective proceeding from fate
- Spanish
- fatal
- French
- fatal
- German
- schicksalhaft
- Italian
- fatale
- Russian
- роково́й rokovój
- Dutch
- fataal
- Polish
- fatalny
- Hungarian
- végzetes
- Catalan
- fatal
- Czech
- osudový
3 more languages
- Esperanto
- fatala
- Finnish
- kohtalokas
- Slovenian
- usoden
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Fa′tal adjective
Origin: L. fatalis, fr. fatum: cf. F. fatal. See Fate.
1. Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny; necessary; inevitable. rare
These thing are fatal and necessary.— John Tilllotson
It was fatal to the king to fight for his money.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon
2. Foreboding death or great disaster. rare
That fatal screech owl to our house That nothing sung but death to us and ours.— William Shakespeare
3. Causing death or destruction; deadly; mortal; destructive; calamitous; as, a fatal wound; a fatal disease; a fatal day; a fatal error.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
fatal
<programming> Resulting in termination of the program.
(1997-08-03)