fatal

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See also: fåtal

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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
    • 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[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

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.

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (fatal).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatals)

  1. fatal

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin fātālis (fatal).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /fataːl/, [faˈtˢæːˀl]

Adjective[edit]

fatal

  1. fatal

Inflection[edit]

Inflection of fatal
Positive Comparative Superlative
Indefinte common singular fatal 2
Indefinite neuter singular fatalt 2
Plural fatale 2
Definite attributive1 fatale
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.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (fatal).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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

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

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

German[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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

Usage notes[edit]

  • 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[edit]

Indonesian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

fatal

  1. fatal
    1. Causing death or destruction.
      Synonym: celaka
    2. Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny; inevitable.

Further reading[edit]

Middle French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. fatal (due to fate)

References[edit]

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

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin fātālis (fatal).

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. fatal

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin fātālis (fatal).

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. fatal

References[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin fātālis (fatal).

Pronunciation[edit]

 

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

Adjective[edit]

fatal m or f (plural fatais)

  1. fatal
  2. terrible, very bad

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

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

  1. fatal

Declension[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin fātālis (fatal).

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Adjective[edit]

fatal m or f (masculine and feminine plural fatales)

  1. fatal
  2. terrible, very bad

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • Bikol Central: patal (stupid)

Adverb[edit]

fatal

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

Further reading[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fatal (not comparable)

  1. fatal (having dire consequences)
    begå ett fatalt misstag
    make a fatal mistake

Usage notes[edit]

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

Declension[edit]

Inflection of fatal
Indefinite Positive Comparative Superlative2
Common singular fatal
Neuter singular fatalt
Plural fatala
Masculine plural3 fatale
Definite Positive Comparative Superlative
Masculine singular1 fatale
All fatala
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
3) Dated or archaic

References[edit]