fateful
pronunciation
How to pronounce fateful in British English:
UK [ˈfeɪtfl]
How to pronounce fateful in American English:
US [ˈfeɪtfl]
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- Adjective:
- having momentous consequences; of decisive importance
- of ominous significance
- (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin
- controlled or decreed by fate; predetermined
Word Origin
- fateful (adj.)
- 1710s, "prophetic," from fate (n.) + -ful. Meaning "of momentous consequences" is from c. 1800. Related: Fatefully. Sometimes used by 18c.-19c. poets as if it meant "having the power to kill," which usually belongs to fatal. The broad and diverging senses of fate (n.) also yielded adjectives fated "doomed," also "set aside by fate;" fatiferous "deadly, mortal (1650s), from Latin fatifer "death-bringing;" fatific/fatifical (c. 1600) "having power to foretell," from Latin fatidicus "prophetic."
Example
- 1. On the fateful day of august 8 , russia 's stock market plummeted 6.5 per cent .
- 2. For britain it is a fateful development .
- 3. That fatal summer and those fateful words continue to resonate .
- 4. Even as politicians and protesters gear up for a fateful climate-change meeting in denmark , some of their citizens have little stomach for a fight
- 5. But even as he spares no pains to elucidate the harm caused by both national socialism and stalinism , he understates the extent to which their history was a fateful encounter .