noun
definition
A fatality; an event that leads to death.
definition
A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.
adjective
definition
Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
definition
Foreboding death or great disaster.
definition
Causing death or destruction.
example
a fatal wound; a fatal disease; that fatal day; a fatal mistake
definition
Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.
example
a fatal error; a fatal exception
Examples of fatal in a Sentence
The council had also a fatal defect in its constitution.
This step was fatal to Pippin's designs.
Hubris was a fatal flaw of many ancient heroes.
The following year was more fatal.
This was the case once before, in 1901; and the total of fatal accidents to passengers and servants, taken together, has in several years been very low (1896, eight; 1901, eight; 1902, ten; 1904, thirteen), but never before was it down to six.
The fatal outcome of the campaign that followed he did not live to hear.
In 1490 a treaty was signed at Damme between the people of Bruges and the archduke Maximilian, and very soon after this event the channel became completely closed up, and the foreign merchant gilds or "nations" left the place for Antwerp. This signified the death of the port and was indirectly fatal to Bruges as well.
It is doubtful whether his last and fatal visit to Paris was due to his own wish or to the instigation of his niece, Madame Denis; but this lady - a woman of disagreeable temper, especially to her inferiors - appears to have been rather hardly treated by Voltaire's earlier, and sometimes by his later, biographers.
They may be grown outside in England during the summer months, but a few degrees of frost is fatal to them.
Her fatal illness developed in the autumn of the following year, and she died on the 28th of November 1780.
Attempts have been made to introduce this into the infested area in Texas; but owing to the winter proving fatal to the " kelep " its usefulness may be restricted to tropical and subtropical regions.
The last few years of his life, however, were disturbed by the rebellion of his eldest son, which well-nigh proved fatal.
He was, in fact, a victim to those " halfmeasures " which Machiavelli condemns as fatal to success.
Aymer, however, gained the support of the pope; he was on his way back to England when he was overtaken by a fatal illness at Paris.
In consequence of a fatal duel he was sent back to Naples; there he served under Joachim Murat with the rank of general, and fought against the AngloSicilian forces in Calabria and at Messina.
Yes. He tried to commit suicide after he killed her; he left a note but he didn't cut his wrists deeply enough to be fatal.
In November 1580 Ivan in a fit of ungovernable fury at some contradiction or reproach, struck his eldest surviving son Ivan, a prince of rare promise, whom he passionately loved, a blow which proved fatal.
In the same month it was joined by the Cispadane Republic; and the terms of the treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797), while fatal to the political life of Venice, awarded to this now considerable state the Venetian territories west of the river Adige.
Paul's want of political wisdom, and his ignorance of human nature aroused antagonisms fatal.
He also posed as an author and patron of literature; his poems, severely criticized by Philoxenus, were hissed at the Olympic games; but having gained a prize for a tragedy on the Ransom of Hector at the Lenaea at Athens, he was so elated that he engaged in a debauch which proved fatal.
It spread rapidly over the country, affecting all domesticated animals except horses, and although seldom attended by fatal results, caused everywhere great alarm and loss.
There is no actual proof that this spider is more poisonous than others, but it is a significant fact that its species, inhabiting countries as widely separated as Chile, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand and South Europe are held in great fear by the indigenous population, and many stories are current of serious or fatal results following their bites.
But the hostility of Alexius, aided and abetted by the jealousy of Raymund of Toulouse, was almost equally fatal.
War and extravagant expenditure had come, and he believed both to be fatal to the prosperity and progress of America.
The fact that spring water is not now found in this locality is by no means fatal to the theory; recent engineering investigations have shown that much of the surface water of the Attic plain has sunk to a lower level.
She left Prague on the 8th of November 1620, after the fatal battle of the White Hill, for Kiistrin, travelling thence to Berlin and Wolfenbiittel, finally with Frederick taking refuge at the Hague with Prince Maurice of Orange.
As an exponent of Plato he suffered from the fatal error of confounding Plato with the later Platonists.
The Mussulman population of the Morea, taken unawares, was practically exterminated during the fury of the first few days; and, most fatal of all, the defection of the Greeks of the islands crippled the Ottoman navy by depriving it of its only effective sailors.
The death of Toledo in 1567 threatened a fatal blow at the satisfactory completion of the enterprise, but a worthy successor was found in Juan Herrera, Toledo's favourite pupil, who adhered in the main to his master's designs.
This latter match, though unpopular in England and Normandy, was a fatal blow to the designs of Louis VI., and prepared the way for the expansion of English power beyond the Loire.
In 1769 his tragedy of The Fatal Discovery had a run of nine nights; Alonzo also (1773) had fair success in the representation; but his last tragedy, Alfred (1778), was so coolly received that he gave up writing for the stage.
As the entire time required for light to pass over the radius of the earth's orbit is only about 500 seconds, this error is fatal to the method.
His relative, noting the lad's passionate addiction to study, solemnly warned him, against indulging such a taste, as likely to prove a fatal obstacle to his success in commercial life.
Towards the close of 1828 he felt the approach of a fatal malady - a tumour in the brain - and devoted his last days to a careful revisal of his unpublished researches and industrial processes, dictating several papers on these subjects, which were afterwards published in the Philosophical Transactions.
The news of this manifesto, arriving as it did simultaneously with that of Gdrgei's successes, destroyed the last vestiges of a desire of the Hungarian revolutionists to compromise, and on the 14th of April, on the motion of Kossuth, the diet proclaimed the independence of Hungary, declared the house of Habsburg as false and perjured, for ever excluded from the throne, and elected Kossuth president of the Hungarian Republic. This was an execrable blunder in the circumstances, and the results were fatal to the national cause.
On the other hand the Austrians pointed out that not only would failure to understand each other's language cause fatal confusion on a battlefield, but also tend to disintegrate the forces even in peace time.
In the single internment camp of Arad there were 3,400 deaths among the victims from Bosnia alone; and Father Nikolic, a Catholic priest from Istria, testified to having himself buried over 2,000 Istrian victims, and Doctor Martinovic to a knowledge of 8,000 fatal cases in the Styrian camps.
The asphodel was also supposed to be a remedy for poisonous snake-bites and a specific against sorcery; it was fatal to mice, but preserved pigs from disease.
The fatal siege of Samaria (724-722 B.C.) seems to have given occasion to chap. xxviii.; but the following On the question of the Isaianic origin of the prophecy, ix.
The particles in this case set up a form of fibrosis of the lung, which, either of itself or by rendering the organ liable to tubercular infection, is extremely fatal.
We have already seen that immediately outside Lower Neapolis on the south the marshes of Lysimeleia begin, which proved fatal to more than one besieging force.
His inexperience in the routine work of government, the utterly unpractical nature of his colleagues, and the turbulence of the Parisian mob, proved fatal to his chances.
The application of physiology to the explanation of diseases, and thus to practice, was chiefly by the theory of the temperaments or mixtures which Galen founded upon the Hippocratic doctrine of humours, but developed with marvellous and fatal ingenuity.
The reputation of the school was great till the 12th or 13th century, when the introduction of the Arab medicine was gradually fatal to it.
The standard of excellence in the ancient writers was indeed far above the level of the 16th century; but the fatal habit of taking at second hand what should have been acquired by direct observation retarded progress more than the possession of better models assisted it, so that the fundamental faults of medieval science remained uncorrected.
The deliberation of the Allies on the 7th and 8th, when the forces opposed to them were insignificant, had been fatal.
While such minute and gradual variations are harmless for most optical purposes, sudden variations which generally take the form of striae or veins are fatal defects in all optical glass.
The fatal result of conflict between town autonomy and territorial power had been taught in Flanders.
But the battle of Benevento (1266), where Manfred fell, and the rout of Tagliacozzo (1268), sealing the ruin of the house of Hohenstaufen in Italy and the triumph of that of Anjou, were fatal to Pisa.
It is this most fatal doubt which evokes the Shepherd's sternest rebuke; and he meets it with the ultimate religious appeal, viz.