Etymology From Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).
1
Archaic, Rare Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
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.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
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.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
3
Causing death or destruction.
a fatal wound; a fatal disease; that fatal day; a fatal mistake
Author Rita Mae Brown consistently strings together short comical movie clips which may be fine for screenplays but fatal in novels. Unfortunately, Toder chooses to imitate this model and her story suffers.1980 December 6, Cindy Rizzo, “Jewish, Lesbian, Feminist, Psychologist, Author--All of the above and more”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 20, page 9:
3 more examples
I shoot Mrs. Marlow expertly through the neck. This is not a fatal wound. The bullet misses every artery. She is paralyzed before it leaves her body. Which doesn’t mean she can’t feel pain. It just means she can’t do anything about it. This is my design.2013 April 4, Hannibal, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Will Graham (Hugh Dancy):
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.2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:
For this reason, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that spinach be cooked at 160º for 15 seconds, which kills potentially fatal bacteria.2021 July 1, Gregory McNamee, “Does spinach make you strong? Ask Popeye – and science”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2025:
4
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.
Etymology From Middle French fatal, from Latin fātālis (“fatal”).
1
A fatality; an event that leads to death.
For this same period there have been four fatals and 44 nonfatals in gassy mines.1969, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education, Hearings, page 90:
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.1999 April, Flying Magazine, volume 126, number 4, page 15:
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.