/ fəˈtæləti; NAmE / noun ( pl. -ies )
1.
[ C ] a death that is caused in an accident or a war, or by violence or disease :
Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities.
2.
[ U ] the fact that a particular disease will result in death :
to reduce the fatality of certain types of cancer
Different forms of cancer have different fatality rates.
3.
[ U ] the belief or feeling that we have no control over what happens to us :
A sense of fatality gripped her.
••
WORD ORIGIN
late 15th cent. (denoting the quality of causing death or disaster): from French fatalité or late Latin fatalitas , from Latin fatalis decreed by fate, from fatum that which has been spoken, from fari speak. Senses 1 and 2 date from the mid 19th cent.