Ominous vs Fatal - What's the difference?
ominous | fatal | Related terms |
Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant.
Specifically, giving indication of a coming ill; being an evil omen; threatening; portentous; inauspicious.
* California poll support for Jerry Brown's tax increases has ominous implications for U.S. taxpayers too Los Angeles Times Headline April 25, 2011
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=April 29
, author=Nathan Rabin
, title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)
Proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.
*{{quote-book, year=1935, author=
, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1
, passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
Foreboding]] or great [[#Noun, disaster.
*
*:Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability:it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
Causing death or destruction.
:
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= (lb) Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.
:
A fatality; an event that leads to death.
* 1999 , Flying Magazine (volume 126, number 4, April 1999, page 15)
(computing) A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.
As adjectives the difference between ominous and fatal
is that ominous is of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant while fatal is proceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.As a noun fatal is
a fatality; an event that leads to death.ominous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, page= , passage=The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogurt!) is amusing in itself, as is the idea that frogurt could be cursed, but it’s really the Shopkeeper’s quicksilver shift from ominous doomsaying to chipper salesmanship that sells the sequence.}}
Usage notes
* Formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshadowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread. * Nouns to which "ominous" is often applied: sign, silence, warning, cloud, note, sound, shadow, threat, music, tone, implication, message, presence, development, voice, portent, turn, sky, figure, dream, event, trend, change, day, beginning, growl, cry, signal, pattern.Synonyms
* portentous * threateningDerived terms
* ominously * ominousnessExternal links
* *fatal
English
Adjective
(-)George Goodchild
Philip J. Bushnell
Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance, passage=Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident. Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.}}
Synonyms
* (proceeding from fate) inevitable, necessary * (foreboding death) terminal * (causing death) calamitous, deadly, destructive, mortalDerived terms
* fatalism * fatalistic * fatality * fatally * nonfatal * nonfatallyNoun
(en noun)- The best accident rate in general aviation is in corporate/executive flying at 0.17 per 100000 hours for fatals and .50 for total accidents.