# fatal
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfeɪ.təl/
** (General American) IPA: [ˈfeɪ.ɾɫ̩]
** Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪtəl

### Adjective

fatal (not comparable)
* (rare, archaic) Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
    Synonyms: inevitable, necessary; see also Thesaurus:inevitable
** 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.
* (rare, archaic) Foreboding death or great disaster.
    Synonyms: inauspicious, portentous; see also Thesaurus:ominous
** 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.
* Causing death or destruction.
    Synonyms: calamitous, deadly, destructive, lethal, mortal, terminal; see also Thesaurus:disastrous
    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.
* (computing) Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.
    a fatal error; a fatal exception

#### Derived terms

* fatal attraction
* fatal familial insomnia
* fatalism
* fatalist
* fatalistic
* fatality
* fatalize
* fatally
* fatalness
* fatal system error
* homme fatal
* non-fatal
* nonfatal
* nonfatally
* unfatal

#### Translations
### Noun

fatal (plural fatals)
* 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.
* (computing) A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* A-flat, Falta, aflat, A flat, a-flat, a flat

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [fəˈtal]
* IPA: (Valencia) [faˈtal]
* Homophone: (Balearic,Central) fetal
* Rhymes: -al

### Adjective

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatals)
* fatal

#### Derived terms

* fatalisme
* fatalista
* fatalment

#### Related terms

* fatalitat

### Further reading

* “fatal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
* “fatal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “fatal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “fatal” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Danish
### Etymology

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fataːl/, [faˈtˢæːˀl]

### Adjective

fatal
* fatal
    Synonym: skæbnesvanger

#### Inflection

$^1$ When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. $^2$ The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

#### Derived terms

* fatalisme

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fa.tal/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -al

### Adjective

fatal (feminine fatale, masculine plural fatals, feminine plural fatales)
* fatal (due to fate)
* fatal (causing death)

#### Derived terms

* étreinte fatale
* fatalement
* fatalisme
* fataliste
* femme fatale

#### Related terms

* fatalité

### Further reading

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

## German
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /faˈtaːl/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -aːl

### Adjective

fatal (strong nominative masculine singular fataler, comparative fataler, superlative am fatalsten)
* fatal, having serious consequences, severe
    Synonyms: verhängnisvoll, folgenschwer, schwer, ernst, gravierend
* (dated) embarrassing, awkward, causing predicament
    Synonyms: misslich, peinlich, unangenehm

#### Usage notes

* 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.

#### Declension
## Indonesian
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈfatal]
* Hyphenation: fa‧tal

### Adjective

fatal
* fatal
** causing death or destruction
    Synonym: celaka
** proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny; inevitable

### Further reading

* “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.

## Middle French
### Etymology

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

### Adjective

fatal m (feminine singular fatale, masculine plural fatals, feminine plural fatales)
* fatal (due to fate)

### References

* ↑ Etymology and history of “fatal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Adjective

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

### References

* “fatal” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Adjective

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

### References

* “fatal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /faˈtaw/ [faˈtaʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /fɐˈtal/ [fɐˈtaɫ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /fɐˈtal/ [fɐˈtaɫ]
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /fɐˈta.li/
* Rhymes: -al, -aw
* Hyphenation: fa‧tal

### Adjective

fatal m or f (plural fatais)
* fatal
** decided by fate or destiny
    Synonym: fatídico
    Antonym: casual
** causing death
    Synonyms: letal, letífero, letífico, mortal, mortifero
** causing damage
    Synonyms: calamitoso, funesto, nefasto, prejudicial
* inevitable
    Synonyms: inelutável, inevitável, infalível
* terrible, very bad

#### Derived terms

* fatalismo
* fatalista
* fatalmente

#### Related terms

* fatalidade

### Further reading

* “fatal”, in iDicionário Aulete (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
* “fatal”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2025
* “fatal” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
* “fatal”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
* “fatal”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
* “fatal”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

## Romanian
### Etymology

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

### Adjective

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

#### Declension
## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /faˈtal/ [faˈt̪al]
* Rhymes: -al
* Syllabification: fa‧tal

### Adjective

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatales)
* fatal
* terrible, very bad

#### Derived terms

* fatalismo
* fatalista
* fatalmente
* mujer fatal

#### Related terms

* fatalidad

#### Descendants

* → Bikol Central: patal (“stupid”)

### Adverb

fatal
* very badly, terribly
    Me siento fatal. ― I feel terrible.
    Manejas fatal. ― You drive terribly.

### Further reading

* “fatal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Swedish
### Adjective

fatal (not (comparable))
* fatal (having dire consequences)
    begå ett fatalt misstag ― make a fatal mistake

#### Usage notes

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

#### Declension

$^1$ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. $^2$ Dated or archaic. $^3$ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

### References

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