Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fateful |
FatefulAdjective1. Having momentous consequences; of decisive importance; "that fateful meeting of the U.N. when...it declared war on North Korea"- Saturday Rev; "the fatal day of the election finally arrived". 2. Of ominous significance. 3. (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin; "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"; "a calamitous defeat"; "the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign"; "such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles Darwin; "it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it"- Douglas MacArthur; "a fateful error". 4. Controlled or decreed by fate; predetermined; "a fatal series of events". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fateful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1808. (references) |
Synonyms: FatefulSynonyms: black (adj), calamitous (adj), disastrous (adj), fatal (adj), foreboding(a) (adj), portentous (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Fateful |
| English words defined with "fateful": black ♦ calamitous ♦ disastrous ♦ fatal, fatefully. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "fateful": Beer, Birds ♦ Female ♦ Gramophone ♦ Window. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | That fateful night the car was stalled upon the railroad track ("Teen Angel"; performing artist: Mark Dinning) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Fateful Diamond (1912) Facial Expressions: The Fateful Letter (1898) Fateful Journey (2003) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | A thrill of horror passed over the courtroom as the Judge pronounced the fateful words -- you are sentenced to fourteen years in the United States. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
 | Clock tower; midnight; wolf; witching hour; ominous; apocalyptic; augural; baleful; baneful; clouded; dangerous; dark; dire; direful; dismal; doomed; doomful; fateful; fearful; forbidding; gloomy; grim; haunting; hostile; ill-boding; ill-fated; impending. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | And now this fateful interview had come to a close |
A Swiftly Tilting Planet | Madeleine L'Engle | At terra at this fateful hour I call upon all heaven with its power, And the sun with its brightness, And the snow with its whiteness, And the fire with all the strength it hath, And the lighting with its rapid wrath, And the winds with the swiftness along their path, And the sea with its deepness, And the rocks with their steepness, And the earth with its starkness, All this I place,By God's Almighty help and grace, Between myself and the powers of darkness |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Lithuania | Because of his proclamation of liberation and self-rule, many Lithuanians gratefully volunteered for the French Army when Napoleon occupied Kaunas in 1812 during the fateful invasion of Russia. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FEMALE, n. One of the opposing, or unfair, sex. The Maker, at Creation's birth, With living things had stocked the earth. From elephants to bats and snails, They all were good, for all were males. But when the Devil came and saw He said: "By Thine eternal law Of growth, maturity, decay, These all must quickly pass away And leave untenanted the earth Unless Thou dost establish birth" -- Then tucked his head beneath his wing To laugh -- he had no sleeve -- the thing With deviltry did so accord, That he'd suggested to the Lord. The Master pondered this advice, Then shook and threw the fateful dice Wherewith all matters here below Are ordered, and observed the throw; Then bent His head in awful state, Confirming the decree of Fate. From every part of earth anew The conscious dust consenting flew, While rivers from their courses rolled To make it plastic for the mould. Enough collected (but no more, For niggard Nature hoards her store) He kneaded it to flexible clay, While Nick unseen threw some away. And then the various forms He cast, Gross organs first and finer last; No one at once evolved, but all By even touches grew and small Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade, To match all living things He'd made Females, complete in all their parts Except (His clay gave out) the hearts. "No matter," Satan cried; "with speed I'll fetch the very hearts they need" -- So flew away and soon brought back The number needed, in a sack. That night earth range with sounds of strife -- Ten million males each had a wife; That night sweet Peace her pinions spread O'er Hell -- ten million devils dead! G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | We must be careful now and refrain from any steps which would not be useful to the defense of the states involved in the conflict, which could only cause irritation and even serve as a provocation for a fateful step. |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | But our most fateful new challenge is the threat of global warming. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Fateful" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Fateful" is used about 198 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 198 | 21,729 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "fateful"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | fatal (baneful, deathly, fatal, feral, pernicious, vital), profetik (fatidical, oracular, orphic, predictive, Sibylline, vatic), në dorë të fatit (fated). (various references) | |
Arabic | مميت (deadly, deathly, fatal, gangrenous, grave, internecine, lethal, mortal, pernicious), منذر بسوء (ominous), مقدر (estimated, evaluated, fatal, fated, implied, predestined, rated, tacit), مصيري (crucial, fatal), حاسم (absolute, categorical, conclusive, critical, crucial, decided, decisive, definite, definitive, determinate, final, high, peremptory, pivotal, unqualified). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | съдбовен (eventful), съдбоносен (crucial, fatal, vital, weird), решителен (chopping, crisp, decided, decisive, determined, drastic, flat-footed, heroic, high-spirited, obstinate, peremptory, plucky, plump, point blank, pronounced, purposeful, purposive, resolute, ringing, stable, stalwart, straight out, strong-minded, sturdy, thoroughgoing, trenchant, ultimate, unfaltering, unflinching, unhesitating, utter, winning), фатален (fatal, inevitable, irrevocable, lethal, portentous, vital, weird), гибелен (disastrous, fatal, homicidal, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, suicidal, swart), пророчески (apocalyptic, fatidical, mantic, oracular, orphic, predictive, prophetic), пагубен (baleful, baneful, calamitous, damnific, detrimental, evil, fatal, homicidal, malign, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, ruinous, subversive). (various references) | |
Chinese | 重大 (momentous, significant). (various references) | |
Czech | zlovìstný (baleful, black, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, sinister, spooky, uncanny, unlucky), osudový (fatal, inescapable), osudný (catastrophic, fatal, fated, ill fated, lethal, ominous, vital), neblahý (baleful, calamitous, dire, hapless, harmful, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, ominous, sinister, unfortunate, unlucky). (various references) | |
Dutch | noodlottig (ill-fated), funest (ill-fated), fataal (fatal, ill-fated). (various references) | |
Esperanto | fatala (ill-fated). (various references) | |
Finnish | kohtalokas (fatal, ill-fated). (various references) | |
French | fatidique (fatal, fatidical), fatal (fatal), mortel (fatal), décisif. (various references) | |
German | verhängnisvoll (catastrophic, catastrophically, disastrous, fatal, fatally, ill fated, ill-fated, ominous), schicksalhaft, fatal (awkward, dire, embarrassing, fatal, ill-fated). (various references) | |
Greek | σημαδιακόσ (marked), μοιραίοσ (fatal, inevitable), μοιραίος (deadly, fatal). (various references) | |
Hebrew | 'ורלי (critical, crucial), 'זר מראש (predestined). (various references) | |
Hungarian | végzetes (catastrophic, fatal, fated, fey, mortal, ruinous, suicidal, tragic, tragical). (various references) | |
Italian | fatidico (fatal), fatale (destined, fatal, fated, inevitable), nefasto (fatal, ill-omened, inauspicious, malign, portentous, sinister). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 宿命的 , 天下分け目 (decisive). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | しゅくめいてき, て"かわけめ (decisive). (various references) | |
Norwegian | skjebnesvanger (fatal). (various references) | |
Papiamen | fatal (ill-fated). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | atefulfay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | fatal (deadly, earth-born, fatal, inevitable, knockout, pernicious, pestilent), fatídico (fatidical, untoward, weird). (various references) | |
Romanian | funest (baneful, calamitous, deadly, disastrous, fatal, feral, sinister), fatal (deadly, deathly, fatal, feral, inevitably, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential, vital, weird), profetic (oracular, predictive, prophetic, prophetically), predestinat (destined, fated, foredoomed), decisiv (conclusive, critical, crucial, decisive, definitive, determinant, determinative, final, ultimate, winning). (various references) | |
Russian | роковой (basilisk, fatal). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sudbonosan (crucial, ominous), koban (calamitous, deathly, dire, fatal, malign, portentous, unhappy). (various references) | |
Spanish | fatal (deadly, desperate, dire, dismal, fatal, ghastly, ill-fated, lethal). (various references) | |
Swedish | avgörande (Cardinal, conclusion, conclusive, crucial, deciding, decision, decisive, definitive, operative, seminal, vital), ödesmättad, ödesdiger (baneful, capital, fatal, irremeable, ominous), ödesbestämd (fated). (various references) | |
Turkish | felâket getiren (catastrophic, catastrophical, disastrous), uğursuz (accursed, accurst, baleful, black, bloody, demon, dire, evil, hoodoo, ill fated, ill-omened, inauspicious, ominous, portentous, sinister, unlucky, untoward), kaderi belirleyen, kadere bağlı, kaçınılmaz (fatal, fated, imperious, indispensable, ineluctable, inevitable, inextricable, irremissible, unavoidable, urgent), can alıcı, önemli (big, big time, capital, consequential, considerable, emphatic, emphatical, eventful, grand, grave, great, gut, healthy, heavy, high, historic, historical, important, leading, major, momentous, noteworthy, of importance, of note, of weight, prominent, respectable, serious, significant, smart, solemn, star, substantial, top-line, urgent, weighty, worthy), öldürücü (baneful, deadly, deathlike, deathly, fatal, fell, homicidal, killing, lethal, murderous, perishing, pestilent, pestilential, virulent, vital). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | фатальний (basilisk, deathly, fatal, fey, weird), вирішальний (all in all, conclusive, critical, crucial, decisive, determinant, determinative, final, winning), зловісний (augural, bodeful, dire, disastrous, grim, inauspicious, ominous, oracular, oraculous, portentous, sinister, sinistrous, unlucky). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tiền định (fatal), số đã định trước tiên đoán quyết định, gây chết chóc, có những hậu quả quan trọng gây tai hoạ. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | necessaria, necessariae, necessarias, necessarii, necessariis, necessariora, necessarios, necessarium, necessarius. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fateful": fatefully, fatefulness, fatefulnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fateful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Atafu, Facefulls, Faneuil, pageful, satefl. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fateful" (pronounced fā"tful) |
| 5 | -ā" t f u l | grateful, hateful, ungrateful. |
| 4 | -t f u l | artful, boastful, deceitful, delightful, disrespectful, distasteful, distrustful, doubtful, eventful, fistful, fitful, forgetful, fretful, frightful, fruitful, hurtful, spiteful, tactful, tasteful, insightful, lustful, mistrustful, neglectful, regretful, resentful, respectful, restful, rightful, thoughtful, uneventful, wasteful, wistful, zestful. |
| 3 | -f u l | apocryphal, awful, baffle, baleful, bashful, beautiful, blissful, bountiful, careful, cheerful, colorful, disdainful, disgraceful, doleful, dreadful, duffel, dutiful, faithful, falafel, fanciful, fearful, flavorful, forceful, gainful, gleeful, graceful, harmful, healthful, helpful, hopeful, houseful, sorrowful, soulful, stifle, stressful, successful, suspenseful, tearful, thankful, joyful, kerfuffle, lawful, masterful, meaningful, merciful, mindful, mournful, muffle, needful, painful, panful, peaceful, pitiful, playful, plentiful, powerful, prayerful, purposeful, raffle, remorseful, reshuffle, resourceful, riffle, rifle, rueful, ruffle, scornful, scuffle, shameful, shuffle, sinful, skillful, trifle, triumphal, truffle, truthful, tuneful, unfaithful, unhealthful, unhelpful, unlawful, unsuccessful, untruthful, useful, vengeful, waffle, watchful, willful, wishful, woeful, wonderful, worshipful, wrongful, youthful. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-f-f-l-t-u" | |
-2 letters: fault, fetal, flute, luffa, lutea. | |
-3 letters: alef, fate, feal, feat, felt, feta, flat, flea, flue, fuel, late, leaf, left, luff, lute, tael, tale, teal, teff, tela, tufa, tuff, tule. | |
-4 letters: aff, aft, ale, alt, ate, eat, eau, eff, eft, elf, eta, fat, fet, feu, flu, lat, lea, let, leu, tae, tau, tea, tel. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-f-f-l-t-u" | |
+1 letter: affluent, feastful, sufflate. | |
+2 letters: affluents, effectual, fatefully, sufflated, sufflates. | |
+3 letters: afflatuses, affluently, insufflate, unaffluent. | |
+4 letters: effectually, fatefulness, faultfinder, fearfullest, footfaulted, ineffectual, insufflated, insufflates, nonaffluent. | |
+5 letters: effectuality, faithfulness, faultfinders, unaffectedly, unaffiliated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Speeches 11. Usage Frequency 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
