fatality en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- (US) audio
- /feɪ-/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- [feɪ̯ˈtʰælɪɾi] (General-American)
- /fə-/ (General-American)
- /fəˈtælɪtɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /feɪˈtælɪti/ (General-American)
- /fəˈtælətɪ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
From French fatalité. equivalent to fatal + -ity. The video game move sense was popularized by the Mortal Kombat series.
Meanings
- The state proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity, superior to, and independent of, free and rational control.
- Tendency to death, destruction or danger, as if by decree of fate.
-
That which is decreed by fate or which is fatal; a fatal event.
What can I say, or think of this most terrible of fatalities?
1851, Wilkie Collins, The Twin Sisters:
- Death.
-
An accident that causes death.
the whole thing felt like being in a near traffic fatality avoided by inches and later not being able to think of the whole thing lest you begin shaking...
2011, David Foster Wallace, The Pale King, page 13:
- A person killed.
-
A move used to deliver a coup de grâce to a defeated opponent.
My first enchantment with computers came when I was about six years old, in Montreal in the early nineties, playing Mortal Kombat with my oldest brother. He told me about some “fatalities”—gruesome, witty ways of killing your opponent.
2023 November 13, James Somers, “A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| fatalities | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
Synonyms
kismet · fatality · fortune · fall · liquidation · destiny · predestination · banker · exit · end · destin · chance · defunction · doom · fate · preordination · doom · orlay · inevitability · safe bet · sunset · certitude · demise · doom · dematerialization · decease · mortality · demise · quietus · inevitability · the big sleep · crash · tomb · downfall · certainty · good bet · predestiny · qadar · fair bet · portion · foreordination · destiny · sure thing · fatality · dirt nap · sleep of the just · weird · dead cert · fatality · decomposition · celestial transfer · foredoom · the big sleep · (the) bane · expiration · (the) end · sure bet · passing · cinch · mortality · death · lot · cert · wyrd · racing certainty · repose
Translations (14)
ja 死亡事故 (accident which caused death) · bg предопределеност (tendency to death, destruction or danger, as if by decree of fate) · fi kohtalokkuus (tendency to death, destruction or danger, as if by decree of fate) · fi kuolonkolari (accident which caused death) · bg фаталност (tendency to death, destruction or danger, as if by decree of fate) · fi kohtalo (state proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity) · bg участ (state proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity) · fi kuolemaan johtanut onnettomuus (accident which caused death) · sv dödsolycka (accident which caused death) · fi kuolonuhri (person killed) · ga cinniúint (that which is decreed by fate or which is fatal) · bg съдба (state proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity) · fi kohtalo (that which is decreed by fate or which is fatal) · fi kuolemantapaus (death)