MEANING
1. Causing death rather than merely injury or illness.
2. Serious enough to destroy a plan, argument, relationship, or chance of success.
Use it for
stating that an injury or accident caused death; distinguishing death from a nonfatal injury; describing an illness or dose with a deadly outcomeDistinguishes an outcome involving death from danger alone, with a separate figurative use for decisive ruin. Writing functions: Death / Mortality.
Words that belong together
- a fatal injury
- a fatal accident
- prove fatal
On the page
The wound proved fatal before the surgeon reached the village.
The report described the crash as fatal but did not name the passenger.
His need to be believed was the fatal flaw in an otherwise careful deception.
The missing witness proved fatal to the prosecution’s case.
Word forms
- Base
- fatal
Usage notes
Adjective: a fatal injury; prove fatal; fatal to someone or something. Normally not graded in literal death-result use; say more serious rather than more fatal when comparing injuries. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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