[Vocabulary] fateful/factual

[Silverobama]

Hi,

Which is the correct answer of this question?

He killed his enemy and received a ______ wound himself.

a)moral
b)mortal
c)fateful
d)factual

My answer is "d", is it correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

Have you looked up "factual" in a dictionary? Are you sure that is a likely word to describe a wound?

 

[Silverobama]

Is "c" the correct answer?

I know what "factual" means but I don't know which answer is correct here.

 

[Rover_KE]

You appear to be guessing. Have you looked up all the words?

One of them is defined as 'causing or liable to cause death'.

 

[BobK]

:up: And it's quite a witty question, bacause if you remove two letters from 'factual' - in a way that changes the stressed vowel - you get another word that would fit. Perhaps you - or another student - can think what it is

..and there's another near-miss (which should really be called a 'near-hit' - but airlines' PR departments prefer not to mention disasters ;-))

b

 

[Silverobama]

I looked up those words in dictionary yesterday and the answer seems to be mortal.

I memorized all these words a few years ago but I seldom use them, I do know what they mean in Chinese. Besides, the word "mortal", as least for me, is more commonly known in the form of "mortality", and one collocation is "mortality rate".

The word is "fatal".

Is the answer "mortal" correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes. A mortal wound is an injury which results in death.

 

[5jj]

Yes. A mortal wound is an injury which results in death.

As Bob suggested, and Silver guessed, 'fatal' would also fit, but it wasn't one of the choices.

 

[BobK]

...
I memorized all these words a few years ago but I seldom use them, I do know what they mean in Chinese. Besides, the word "mortal", as least for me, is more commonly known in the form of "mortality", and one collocation is "mortality rate".
...

You're right. BNC shows that 'mortality' is about 5 times more common than 'mortal' - mortality - 2256 hits, mortal - 468. Here are the only two-figure collocations:

1 MORTAL SIN 28
2 MORTAL BLOW 18
3 MORTAL DANGER 17
4 MORTAL MAN 16

COCA (being much bigger, has more, but not proportionally more). It shows Am Eng usage. Here are the top collocations:

1 MORTAL SIN 140
2 MORTAL DANGER 77
3 MORTAL ENEMY 71
4 MORTAL MAN 56
5 MORTAL COMBAT 52

The fact that 'mortal sin' comes top in both may indicate the prevalence of Christian beliefs; but it may (more likely) be an indication that it's often used metaphorically to mean 'very bad mistake' - in fact it's so common that I imagine some speakers don't even realize it's a metaphor.. When I was at school a common use of 'mortal sin' in football was a throw-on (the ball is thrown onto the pitch from the side line) direct to the goalkeeper. (This is not a current idiom.)

In COCA, as in BNC (only less so) - 'mortality' (6355 hits) is much more common than 'mortal (2211).

b