Definition of fateful
1 : having a quality of ominous prophecy a fateful remark
2a : involving momentous consequences : decisive made his fateful decision to declare war — W. L. Shirerb : deadly, catastrophic
3 : controlled by fate : foreordained
fatefulness
nounIndulge Your Inner Word Nerd
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 of fateful from the Web
-
Keavy Smith, 17, was there that fateful night and remembers calling her mother, Angie, screaming and crying after the bomb went off.
-
This Memorial Day, her friends and colleagues’ thoughts drift back to that fateful day.
-
The Summer of Love’s epicenter was in San Francisco’s proudly bohemian Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, where up to 100,000 young people streamed during that fateful summer 50 years ago.
-
A photo in Crozier’s den shows him posing with pilots Buddy Lee and Bryan Nichols and two other crew members shortly before boarding the Chinook for that fateful mission.
-
As A-ma said, every story, every dream, every waking minute of our lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another.
-
Cindy Treiber said in 1997 of a visit to the club about six months before the fateful fire.
-
Well, Chloe was only about three-years-old on that fateful day when her unimpressed faced got stamped into the meme archive of eternity.
-
Carpathia is about the survivors who reach the Carpathia, the first ship to reach the survivors on that fateful night.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fateful'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Circa 1720
First Known Use of fateful
circa 1720
Synonym Discussion of fateful
FATEFUL Defined for English Language Learners
fateful
playDefinition of fateful for English Language Learners
-
: having important results : producing a serious and usually bad result
FATEFUL Defined for Kids
fateful
playDefinition of fateful for Students
: having serious results a fateful decision
Learn More about fateful
-
See words that rhyme with fateful Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for fateful Spanish Central: Translation of fateful Nglish: Translation of fateful for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of fateful for Arabic speakers
Seen and Heard
What made you want to look up fateful? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Writing? Check your grammar now!