1
: having a quality of ominous prophecy
a fateful remark
2
a
: involving momentous consequences : decisive
made his fateful decision to declare war—
W. L. Shirer
W. L. Shirer
b
3
: controlled by fate : foreordained
fatefulness
noun
Examples of fateful in a Sentence
His life changed on that fateful November evening.
Hundreds perished on that fateful day.
Her campaign took a fateful turn.
Recent Examples on the Web
Miller could be seen bending over and grimacing after the fateful pitch, in an obvious degree of pain.
—Jon Vankin, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Sep. 2025
Improvement, centered around Reyna, a New York single mom with tattoos whose life is influenced by fateful moments, random meetings and accidents, won the National Book Critics Circle fiction award and the PEN/Faulkner award.
—Jane Ciabattari
september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
The fateful decisions that doomed the Weimar Republic were made in the aftermath of World War I, shortly after the birth of a new democracy in Germany.
—Daniel Ziblatt, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2025
Prior to and after the ruling, a small but noisy crowd spent those fateful hours chanting in support outside the PJ headquarters in San Telmo, a nearby Buenos Aires neighborhood, many of whom followed her back to Calle San José that frigid night.
—Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fateful
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Jon Vankin, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Sep. 2025
Improvement, centered around Reyna, a New York single mom with tattoos whose life is influenced by fateful moments, random meetings and accidents, won the National Book Critics Circle fiction award and the PEN/Faulkner award.
—Jane Ciabattari
september 2, Literary Hub, 2 Sep. 2025
The fateful decisions that doomed the Weimar Republic were made in the aftermath of World War I, shortly after the birth of a new democracy in Germany.
—Daniel Ziblatt, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2025
Prior to and after the ruling, a small but noisy crowd spent those fateful hours chanting in support outside the PJ headquarters in San Telmo, a nearby Buenos Aires neighborhood, many of whom followed her back to Calle San José that frigid night.
—Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes.com, 27 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for fateful
Cite this Entry
“Fateful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fateful. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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