fatal
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A fatality; an event that leads to death.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
faytuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfeɪtəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A fatality; an event that leads to death.
computing
A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.
adjective
Bringing death
Causing death or destruction.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
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More ways to use fatal
- “The accident was fatal for the driver of the small car.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A death resulting from an accident or a disaster.
With fatal consequences or implications.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An accident that causes someone to die.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.