fatality

UK: /fəˈtælɪti/ US: /feɪˈtælɪti/ ,(fā tal′i tē, fə-)

Inflections of 'fatality' (n): npl: fatalities

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

fa•tal•i•ty /feɪˈtælɪti/   n., pl. -ties. 

1. a death caused by a disaster:
   [countable] highway fatalities.
2. the quality of causing death or disaster;
   deadliness:
   [uncountable] the fatality of cancer.
3. [uncountable] the state or quality of being predetermined by or subject to fate.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

fa•tal•i•ty  (fā tal′i tē, fə-), n., pl. -ties. 

1. a disaster resulting in death.
2. a death resulting from such an occurrence:
   a rise in highway fatalities.
3. the quality of causing death or disaster;
   a fatal influence;
   deadliness.
4. predetermined liability to disaster, misfortune, etc.:
   a fatality for saying the wrong thing.
5. the quality of being predetermined by or subject to fate:
   There is a fatality in human affairs that leads to destruction.
6. the fate or destiny of a person or thing:
   Death is the ultimate fatality of all human beings.
7. a fixed, unalterably predetermined course of things;
   inevitability:
   to resign oneself to the fatality of life.

• Late Latin fātālitās. See fatal, -ity
• 1480–90

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

fatality / fəˈtælɪtɪ/ noun ( -ties)

1. an accident or disaster resulting in death
2. a person killed in an accident or disaster
3. the power of causing death or disaster; deadliness
4. the quality or condition of being fated
5. something caused or dictated by fate