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 (comparative more fatal, superlative most fatal)

1. (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.

2. (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.

3. 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.

   • 2021 July 1, Gregory McNamee, “Does spinach make you strong? Ask Popeye – and science”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     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.

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

   a fatal error; a fatal exception

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

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

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

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatals)

1. fatal

• “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 [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

From Latin fātālis (“fatal”).

• IPA^(key): /fataːl/, [faˈtˢæːˀl]

fatal

1. fatal

   Synonym: skæbnesvanger

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)

• “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.

Borrowed from Dutch fataal, from Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈfatal/ [ˈfa.t̪al]
• Rhymes: -atal
• Syllabification: fa‧tal

fatal

1. fatal; causing death or destruction

   Synonyms: celaka, mematikan

2. (uncommon) fatal; proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny, inevitable

   Near-synonym: nasib

• “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
   1. decided by fate or destiny

      Synonym: fatídico

      Antonym: casual

   2. causing death

      Synonyms: letal, letífero, letífico, mortal, mortifero

   3. causing damage

      Synonyms: calamitoso, funesto, nefasto, prejudicial

2. inevitable

   Synonyms: inelutável, inevitável, infalível

3. terrible, very bad

• “fatal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (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

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

Borrowed 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 [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

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)