fatality
noun/fəˈtæləti/
/feɪˈtæləti/
(plural fatalities)
- [countable] a death that is caused in an accident or a war, or by violence or disease
- Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities.
- a campaign to reduce the number of fatalities on the roads
- [uncountable] the fact that a particular disease will result in death
- to reduce the fatality of certain types of cancer
- Different forms of cancer have different fatality rates.
- The fatality rate so far is about 50%.
- [uncountable] the belief or feeling that we have no control over what happens to us
- A sense of fatality gripped her.
Word Originlate 15th cent. (denoting the quality of causing death or disaster): from French fatalité or late Latin fatalitas, from Latin fatalis ‘decreed by fate’, from fatum ‘that which has been spoken’, from fari ‘speak’. Senses (1 and 2) date from the mid 19th cent.
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