English

Adjective

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.
   • 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, Prologue:

     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;  a fatal day;  a fatal error‎

   • 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

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

fatal ‎(plural fatals)

1. A fatality; an event that leads to death.
   • 1999, Flying Magazine (volume 126, number 4, April 1999, 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.

Anagrams

• A-flat

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin fātālis ‎(“fatal”).

Adjective

fatal m, f ‎(masculine and feminine plural fatals)

1. fatal

Derived terms

• fatalisme
• fatalista
• fatalment

Related terms

• fatalitat

Danish

Etymology

From Latin fātālis ‎(“fatal”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fataːl/, [faˈtˢæːˀl]

Adjective

fatal

1. fatal

Inflection

Synonyms

• skæbnesvanger

Derived terms

• fatalisme

French

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin fātālis

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.tal/
• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

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

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

Derived terms

• fatalement
• fatalité
• fataliste

German

Etymology

Borrowing from Latin fātālis

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aːl

Adjective

fatal ‎(comparative fataler, superlative am fatalsten)

1. fatal

Declension

Middle French

Etymology

First known attestation 1380^[1], borrowing from Latin fātālis

Adjective

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

1. fatal (due to fate)

References

1. ↑ “fatal” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin fatalis

Adjective

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

1. fatal

References

• “fatal” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin fatalis

Adjective

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

1. fatal

References

• “fatal” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin fātālis ‎(“fatal”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /fɐ.ˈtaɫ/
• Hyphenation: fa‧tal

Adjective

fatal m, f ‎(plural fatais, comparable)

1. fatal
2. terrible, very bad

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin fātālis ‎(“fatal”).

Adjective

fatal m, f ‎(plural fatales)

1. fatal
2. terrible, very bad

Adverb

fatal

1. very badly, terribly

   Me siento fatal. I feel terribly bad.

   Manejas fatal. You drive awfully.