noun, plural fa·tal·i·ties.
- a disaster resulting in death.
- a death resulting from such an occurrence: a rise in highway fatalities.
- the quality of causing death or disaster; a fatal influence; deadliness.
- predetermined liability to disaster, misfortune, etc.: a fatality for saying the wrong thing.
- the quality of being predetermined by or subject to fate: There is a fatality in human affairs that leads to destruction.
- the fate or destiny of a person or thing: Death is the ultimate fatality of all human beings.
- a fixed, unalterably predetermined course of things; inevitability: to resign oneself to the fatality of life.
noun plural -ties
- an accident or disaster resulting in death
- a person killed in an accident or disaster
- the power of causing death or disaster; deadliness
- the quality or condition of being fated
- something caused or dictated by fate
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.
- A death resulting from an accident or disaster.
- One that is killed as a result of such an occurrence.