• IPA: /ˈfeɪtəl/
  • (General American) IPA: [ˈfeɪ.ɾɫ̩]

fatal (not comparable)

1. Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
2. Foreboding death or great disaster.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗:

     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

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

   a fatal error; a fatal exception

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

• French: fatal
• German: verhängnisvoll, fatal
• Italian: fatale
• Portuguese: fatal
• Russian: роково́й
• Spanish: fatal

• French: fatal
• Italian: fatale
• Portuguese: fatal
• Russian: роково́й
• Spanish: fatal

• French: fatal
• German: tödlich
• Italian: fatale
• Portuguese: fatal
• Russian: роково́й
• Spanish: fatal

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, 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.