| / English Dictionary |
FATAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Controlled or decreed by fate; predetermined
Example:
a fatal series of events
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
inevitable (incapable of being avoided or prevented)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having momentous consequences; of decisive importance
Example:
the fatal day of the election finally arrived
Synonyms:
fatal; fateful
Classified under:
Similar:
decisive (determining or having the power to determine an outcome)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Bringing death
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
deadly; deathly; mortal (causing or capable of causing death)
deadly; lethal (of an instrument of certain death)
terminal (causing or ending in or approaching death)
Antonym:
nonfatal (not bringing death)
Derivation:
fatality (the quality of being able to cause death or fatal disasters)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin
Example:
a fateful error
Synonyms:
black; calamitous; disastrous; fatal; fateful
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Context examples:
Unnatural light can confuse or expose wildlifeoffsite link like insects, birds and sea turtlesoffsite link, often with fatal consequences.
(Milky Way now hidden from a third of humanity, NOAA)
If untreated, the disease is fatal, usually within the first year or two of life.
(Gene therapy restores immunity in infants with rare immunodeficiency disease, National Institutes of Health)
Sporadic CJD, a fatal neurodegenerative prion disease of humans, is untreatable and difficult to diagnose.
(Eyes of CJD patients show evidence of prions, National Institutes of Health)
This is because meerkat underlings are forced to take the often-fatal risk of leaving the safety of the group to find breeding opportunities, say scientists.
(Breeder meerkats age faster, but their subordinates still die younger, University of Cambridge)
The study shows that drinking more alcohol is associated with a higher risk of stroke, fatal aneurysm, heart failure and death.
(Drinking more than five pints a week could shorten your life, University of Cambridge)
CJD is an incurable — and ultimately fatal — transmissible, neurodegenerative disorder in the family of prion diseases.
(NIH scientists and collaborators find infectious prion protein in skin of CJD patients, National Institutes of Health)
The diseases are thought to be always fatal.
(Experimental treatment slows prion disease, extends life of mice, National Institutes of Health)
Genetic defects that completely block the urea cycle are not observed in people, perhaps since such a defect would be fatal.
(Feeding Amino Groups into the Urea Cycle, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)
An often fatal inflammatory disorder that affects the myocardium.
(Giant Cell Myocarditis, NCI Thesaurus)
Would not my absence itself be an evidence to them of my alarm, and therefore of my fatal knowledge?
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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