fatality rate

noun

plural fatality rates

: the number of deaths from a specific cause

Last year, South Carolina had the nation's third-highest highway fatality rate, with 1,064 people killed in wrecks on the state's roads.

—Joseph S. Stroud

McGuire is a practitioner of what he calls the king of all extreme sports. BASE—an acronym for building, antenna, span (bridge) and earth (cliffs)—jumping has one of the sporting world's highest fatality rates: in its 18-year history, 46 participants have been killed.

—Karl Taro Greenfield

specifically : case fatality rate

Dysentery, in which fatality rates in untreated cases range as high as 50 percent, is especially dangerous to children.

—James C. Riley

Examples of fatality rate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This is only the third Ebola outbreak caused by Bundibugyo, which has had fatality rates of 25–50 percent. —Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 18 May 2026

While still highly deadly, this is lower than the fatality rate of the Zaire strain, which can be up to 90%. —Nicole Brown Chau, CBS News, 18 May 2026

The latest outbreak has been caused by the Bundibugyo strain of ebola, which has historically had a fatality rate between 30% and 50%. —Mary Whitfill Roeloffs, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026

The fatality rate involving the Bundibugyo strain is estimated to be between 25% and 40%, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders. —Helen Regan, CNN Money, 18 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1866, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fatality rate

• borosilicate
• decontaminate
• deoxycholate
• deteriorate
• differentiate
• diisocyanate
• dinoflagellate
• excommunicate
• incapacitate
• insubordinate
• intercorporate
• interpenetrate

Medical Definition

fatality rate

noun

: the number of deaths from a specific cause

… the inclusion of air bags and other design improvements in vehicles, the use of seat belts and even the increasing maturity of the driving population have combined to lower the fatality rate on U. S. highways by 29 percent since 1987.

—Stefan Thomke et al., Scientific American

specifically : case fatality rate

Dysentery, in which fatality rates in untreated cases range as high as 50 percent, is especially dangerous to children.

—James C. Riley, The American Historical Review