Dictionary

fatally en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /ˈfeɪtəli/
• [ˈfeɪ̯ɾl̩i] (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English fatal Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English fatally From fatal + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a deadly manner; lethally.
   • A 22-year-old man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years for fatally stabbing 22-year-old Tashan Daniel in an unprovoked attack at Hillingdon Underground station on September 24 2019. 2020 September 9, “Network News: Man jailed for Hillingdon murder”, in Rail, page 25:
   • White, too, was found dead—fatally shot—at the scene. 2025 August 9, Keren Landman, “‘I’m Actually Surprised It Didn’t Happen Sooner’”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 10 Aug 2025:
   • He told Peace that he did not believe his statement that he had fired the pistol merely to frighten the constable; had not Robinson guarded his head with his arm he would have been wounded fatally, and Peace condemned to death. 1918, H. B. Irving, A Book of Remarkable Criminals:
   • One of the Louisville detectives who fatally shot Breonna Taylor during a botched raid is appealing his termination this week. 2021 December 13, Amir Vera, “Louisville detective who fatally shot Breonna Taylor is appealing his termination from the police department”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2022:
   • Witness our too much memorable shame When Cressy battle fatally was struck, And all our princes captiv'd by the hand Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales; 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry V:
2. Ultimately, with finality or irrevocability, moving towards the demise of something.
   • Chelsea will point to that victory margin as confirmation of their superiority - but Spurs will complain their hopes of turning the game around were damaged fatally by Atkinson's decision. 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2022:
   • "They pretend," as I hear, "that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas;" but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man's writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally? 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods:
3. Fatedly; according to the dictates of fate or doom.
   • He was a slender young man in hot black clothes; he wore the unfaçaded collar fatally and unanimously adopted by all adam's-apple men of morals; he was washed, fair, flat-skulled, clean-minded, and industrious; and the only noise of any kind he ever made in the world was on Sunday. 1913, Booth Tarkington, chapter 9, in The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 138:

Forms

Deriveds

nonfatally

Synonyms

mortally

Translations (1)

pt fatalmente (ultimately, with finality or irrevocability)