fatal
part of speech
adjective (fatal)
meaning for a pupil
1) Causing death: «a fatal accident». tree →
2) Causing failure or very bad results: «a fatal mistake». tree →
sense in the lessons
In news and safety lessons: fatal accidents, fatal diseases — warnings about real dangers. In stories and games: «a fatal error», «a fatal flaw» means a mistake or weakness that ruins everything. «Fatal» is serious; it is not used for small problems.
examples
- The crash was fatal. tree →
- Some mushrooms are fatal if eaten. tree →
- Leaving the door open was a fatal mistake — the hamster escaped. tree →
- The disease can be fatal without treatment. tree →
- The hero's fatal flaw was pride. tree →
- The computer showed a fatal error and shut down. tree →
- His hand closed on the fatal draught. tree →
note
Adverb: fatally; noun: fatality (a death in an accident). Don't confuse with «fateful» (very important for the future). In maths and statistics, «fatalities» counts deaths.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «fatal» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.