fatal

From Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪ.təl/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈfeɪ.ɾɫ̩]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtəl

fatal (not comparable)

1. Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

     She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

2. Foreboding death or great disaster.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

3. Causing death or destruction.

   a fatal wound; a fatal disease; that fatal day; a fatal mistake

   • 1980 December 6, Cindy Rizzo, “Jewish, Lesbian, Feminist, Psychologist, Author--All of the above and more”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 20, page 9:

     Author Rita Mae Brown consistently strings together short comical movie clips which may be fine for screenplays but fatal in novels. Unfortunately, Toder chooses to imitate this model and her story suffers.

   • 2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:

     Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.

4. (computing) Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.

   a fatal error; a fatal exception

• (proceeding from fate): inevitable, necessary
• (foreboding death): terminal
• (causing death): calamitous, deadly, destructive, lethal, mortal

fatal (plural fatals)

1. A fatality; an event that leads to death.
   • 1969, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education, Hearings, page 90:

     For this same period there have been four fatals and 44 nonfatals in gassy mines.

   • 1999 April, Flying Magazine, volume 126, number 4, page 15:

     The best accident rate in general aviation is in corporate/executive flying at 0.17 per 100000 hours for fatals and .50 for total accidents.

2. (computing) A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.

• A flat, A-flat, a flat, a-flat, aflat

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [fəˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [faˈtal]
• Homophone: fetal (Balearic, Central)
• Rhymes: -al

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatals)

1. fatal

• fatalisme
• fatalista
• fatalment

• fatalitat

• “fatal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): /fataːl/, [faˈtˢæːˀl]

fatal

1. fatal

• skæbnesvanger

• fatalisme

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): /fa.tal/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al

fatal (feminine fatale, masculine plural fatals, feminine plural fatales)

1. fatal (due to fate)
2. fatal (causing death)

• étreinte fatale
• fatalement
• fatalisme
• fataliste
• femme fatale

• fatalité

• “fatal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

17th century, from Latin fātālis, in part through French fatal.

• IPA^(key): /faˈtaːl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːl

fatal (strong nominative masculine singular fataler, comparative fataler, superlative am fatalsten)

1. fatal, having serious consequences, severe

   Synonyms: verhängnisvoll, folgenschwer, schwer, ernst, gravierend

2. (dated) embarrassing, awkward, causing predicament

   Synonyms: misslich, peinlich, unangenehm

• The German adjective does not in itself imply death. For example, ein fataler Autounfall (“a fatal car accident”) may be a deadly accident, but could just as well be one which is severe for other reasons, e.g. because several cars were involved in it.

From Dutch fataal, from Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈfatal]
• Hyphenation: fa‧tal

fatal

1. fatal
   1. Causing death or destruction.

      Synonym: celaka

   2. Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny; inevitable.

• “fatal” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

First known attestation 1380,[1] from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

fatal m (feminine singular fatale, masculine plural fatals, feminine plural fatales)

1. fatal (due to fate)

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

fatal (neuter singular fatalt, definite singular and plural fatale)

1. fatal

• “fatal” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

fatal (neuter singular fatalt, definite singular and plural fatale)

1. fatal

• “fatal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: fa‧tal

fatal m or f (plural fatais)

1. fatal
2. terrible, very bad

• fatalismo
• fatalista
• fatalmente

• fatalidade

• “fatal” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Borrowed from French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

fatal m or n (feminine singular fatală, masculine plural fatali, feminine and neuter plural fatale)

1. fatal

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): /faˈtal/ [faˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: fa‧tal

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatales)

1. fatal
2. terrible, very bad

• Bikol Central: patal (“stupid”)

fatal

1. very badly, terribly

   Me siento fatal. ― I feel terrible.

   Manejas fatal. ― You drive terribly.

• “fatal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

fatal (not comparable)

1. fatal (having dire consequences)

   begå ett fatalt misstag

   make a fatal mistake

For "fatal" in the sense of "bringing death," see dödlig. Compare also dödsolycka (“fatal accident”).

• fatal in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• fatal in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• fatal in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)