fatality

English

Etymology

From French fatalité. equivalent to fatal +‎ -ity. The video game move sense was popularized by the Mortal Kombat series.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /feɪˈtælɪti/, [feɪ̯ˈtʰælɪɾi], /fə-/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəˈtælətɪ/, /fəˈtælɪtɪ/, /feɪ-/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ælɪti

Noun

fatality (plural fatalities)

1. The state proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity, superior to, and independent of, free and rational control. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: inevitability; see also Thesaurus:sure thing

2. Tendency to death, destruction or danger, as if by decree of fate. [from 17th c.]

   Synonym: mortality

3. That which is decreed by fate or which is fatal; a fatal event. [from 18th c.]

   Synonyms: destiny, doom; see also Thesaurus:fate

   • 1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1860, →OCLC:

     Again the chance reference to the woman in white! Was there no possibility of speaking of Miss Fairlie and of me without raising the memory of Anne Catherick, and setting her between us like a fatality that it was hopeless to avoid?

4. Death.

   Synonyms: demise, the big sleep; see also Thesaurus:death

5. An accident that causes death. [from 19th c.]
   • 2011, David Foster Wallace, The Pale King, page 13:

     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...

6. A person killed.
7. (video games) A move used to deliver a coup de grâce to a defeated opponent.
   • 2023 November 13, James Somers, “A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft”, in The New Yorker‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 4 October 2026:

     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.

Coordinate terms

• lethality

Derived terms

• fatality rate
• nonfatality

Translations

state proceeding from destiny; invincible necessity

• Bulgarian: съдба (bg) f (sădba), участ (bg) f (učast)
• Finnish: kohtalo (fi)

tendency to death, destruction or danger, as if by decree of fate

• Bulgarian: предопределеност (bg) f (predopredelenost), фаталност (bg) f (fatalnost)
• Finnish: kohtalokkuus (fi)

that which is decreed by fate or which is fatal

• Finnish: kohtalo (fi)
• Irish: cinniúint (ga) f

death

• Finnish: kuolemantapaus (fi)

accident which caused death

• Finnish: kuolemaan johtanut onnettomuus; kuolonkolari (fi) (car accident)
• Japanese: 死亡事故 (shibōjiko)
• Swedish: dödsolycka (sv) c

person killed

• Finnish: kuolonuhri (fi)

video games: move used to deliver a coup de grâce

• Azerbaijani: fataliti