fatality








noun, plural fa·tal·i·ties.

  1. a disaster resulting in death.
  2. a death resulting from such an occurrence: a rise in highway fatalities.
  3. the quality of causing death or disaster; a fatal influence; deadliness.
  4. predetermined liability to disaster, misfortune, etc.: a fatality for saying the wrong thing.
  5. the quality of being predetermined by or subject to fate: There is a fatality in human affairs that leads to destruction.
  6. the fate or destiny of a person or thing: Death is the ultimate fatality of all human beings.
  7. a fixed, unalterably predetermined course of things; inevitability: to resign oneself to the fatality of life.

noun plural -ties

  1. an accident or disaster resulting in death
  2. a person killed in an accident or disaster
  3. the power of causing death or disaster; deadliness
  4. the quality or condition of being fated
  5. something caused or dictated by fate
n.

late 15c., “quality of causing death,” from French fatalité, from Late Latin fatalitatem (nominative fatalitas), from Latin fatalis (see fatal). Senses in 16c.-17c. included “determined by fate” and “a destiny.” Meaning “an occurrence resulting in widespread death” is from 1840. Related: Fatalities.

n.

  1. A death resulting from an accident or disaster.
  2. One that is killed as a result of such an occurrence.
53 queries 0.572