fatal
224
3.7
- adjective
- /ˈfeɪtəl/
:
mortal
- In the wild, certain snake bites can be fatal without immediate medical treatment.
- fatal disease
- fatal diarrhea
- a fatal accident
I thought I was going to get struck by a fatal disease.
- I thought I was going to get struck by a fatal disease.
- Wow, people don't realize that over indexing on this stuff can cause fatal gastrointestinal bleeding.
- So IOSCA plus certain antidepressants like SSRIs can cause a potentially fatal serotonin syndrome.
- What if the virus had been more fatal to white and wealthy people than to people of color?
- So, you know, narcolepsy is potentially fatal in, you know, traffic accidents.
- He administered the fatal draught right.
- If you do not get that shot and you experience symptoms of rabies, they are fatal.
- Meningitis is uncommon, but it's potentially fatal.
Examples
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The doctors confirmed that the injuries from the accident were fatal.
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So while Omicron appears to be less fatal in the rest of the world, that might not be the case in China.
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Nothing is fatal or final other than death.
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The husband was in a fatal car crash on Wednesday.
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While driving me to skating practice, my parents were in a fatal accident.
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Even where good healthcare is available, meningitis can be fatal within 24 hours.
Academic text (2011) -
Teenagers are involved in twice as many fatal auto accidents involving alcohol as their population would suggest.
Academic text (1992) -
Univariable analysis was performed for the 264 fatal cases to identify factors associated with a fatal outcome.
Academic text (2015) -
Overall, esophageal perforations are fatal in as many as 29% of cases.
Academic text (2008) -
The country's recent history, in fact, is emblematic of the fatal tension between economic growth and the environment.
Academic text (1991)
Synonyms
543
2.8
Able to cause death or serious harm
193
4.8
Able to cause death, for example by a weapon or poison
45
7.1
An illness that will cause death and cannot be cured
Antonyms
Compounds
How Deadly
Surface Forms
Morphology
fatal = fat + al
This is a learned borrowing with the productive suffix -al, but the root is not a transparent modern English base word and the meaning 'causing death' is not predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Fatal comes from the Latin fatum, which means 'fate'. It is the same root as English fate, and that is why fatal often means 'causing death'.