fatal
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfeɪ.təl/
ipa: [ˈfeɪ.ɾɫ̩]
rhymes: -eɪtəl
Forms: form: more fatal
form: most fatal
Etymology: From Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
synonyms: word: inevitable
word: necessary
word: avoidless
word: certain
word: fatal
word: foregone
word: impreventable
word: ineluctable
word: inescapable
word: inevitable
word: inexorable
word: irresistible
word: necessary
word: predictable
word: unavoidable
word: unforestallable
word: unescapable
word: unpreventable
glosses: Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
synonyms: word: inauspicious
word: portentous
word: augurous
word: baleful
word: bodeful
word: boding
word: dire
word: disastrous
word: fatal
word: foreboding
word: ill-boding
word: ill-fated
word: ill-omened
word: ill-starred
word: inauspicate
word: inauspicious
word: nefastous
word: omenic
word: ominous
word: brooding
word: portentous
word: presageful
word: presagious
word: prodigious
word: sinister
word: star-crossed
word: sullen
glosses: Foreboding death or great disaster.
examples: text: a fatal wound; a fatal disease; that fatal day; a fatal mistake
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: I shoot Mrs. Marlow expertly through the neck. This is not a fatal wound. The bullet misses every artery. She is paralyzed before it leaves her body. Which doesn’t mean she can’t feel pain. It just means she can’t do anything about it. This is my design.
ref: 2013 April 4, Hannibal, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Will Graham (Hugh Dancy):
text: 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.
ref: 2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:
text: For this reason, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that spinach be cooked at 160º for 15 seconds, which kills potentially fatal bacteria.
ref: 2021 July 1, Gregory McNamee, “Does spinach make you strong? Ask Popeye – and science”, in CNN:
synonyms: word: calamitous
word: deadly
word: destructive
word: lethal
word: mortal
word: terminal
word: apocalyptic
word: calamitous
word: cataclysmal
word: cataclysmic
word: catastrophic
word: deadly
word: debacular
word: destructive
word: devastating
word: disadventurous
word: disastrous
word: eradicative
word: extirpative
word: fatal
word: harmful
word: lethal
word: pernicious
word: ruinous
word: woeful
glosses: Causing death or destruction.
examples: text: a fatal error; a fatal exception
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.
Derived terms: fatal attraction
fatal familial insomnia
fatalism
fatalist
fatalistic
fatality
fatalize
fatally
fatalness
fatal system error
homme fatal
non-fatal
nonfatal
nonfatally
unfatal