fateful

[feyt-fuh l] /ˈfeɪt fəl/
adjective
1.
having momentous significance or consequences; decisively important; portentous:
a fateful meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
2.
fatal, deadly, or disastrous.
3.
controlled or determined by destiny; inexorable.
4.
prophetic; ominous.
Origin
1705-15; fate + -ful
Related forms
fatefully, adverb
fatefulness, noun
Can be confused
fatal, fateful, fetal (see synonym study at fatal)
Synonyms
1, 4. See ominous.
Examples from the web for fateful
  • Hundreds went to see her barrel, on display in a big hotel lobby for ten days before her fateful ride.
  • After his fateful presentation, similar conferences stopped inviting him to speak.
  • We didn't know it then, but that fateful decision gave us a career in music.
  • It forged a unique and fateful partnership with its host, eventually becoming the mitochondria of today.
  • We can't trace cancer to any single agent or fateful event.
  • Shortly after fertilization the cells of the future fly grub begin making their fateful choices.
  • When matter makes its fateful appearance, the shortest routes will curve.
  • Yet nothing will ever be known about that fateful transition until a theory of quantum gravity is successfully forged.
  • Selling a boat one has spent happy decades on is, in a way, a fateful decision.
  • And scientists have stepped up their research into the fateful traffic of disease between animals and people.
British Dictionary definitions for fateful

fateful

/ˈfeɪtfʊl/
adjective
1.
having important consequences; decisively important
2.
bringing death or disaster
3.
controlled by or as if by fate
4.
prophetic
Derived Forms
fatefully, adverb
fatefulness, noun
Word Origin and History for fateful
adj.

1710s, "prophetic," from fate + -ful. Meaning "of momentous consequences" is from c.1800. Related: Fatefully.