Learn English – word or phrase for a choice that ultimately leads to tragedy

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Examples of decisions that ultimately lead to the downfall of the deciders:

  • Troy accepted the gift of the Trojan horse
  • Aladdin doesn't immediately free the Genie when he is told he will become Sultan
  • Juliet's ingestion of Friar Laurence's drug

Is there a word or phrase that describes decision of this kind?

Best Answer

I propose fateful, as in Aladdin's fateful decision or Juliet's act on that fateful night.

Although it can mean simply "significant" or "determined by fate," fateful carries connotations of calamity or misfortune.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fateful

1: having a quality of ominous prophecy [a fateful remark] 2 a : involving momentous consequences : decisive [made his fateful decision to declare war — W. L. Shirer] b : deadly, catastrophic

More poetically, to express a stronger sense of menace or wickedness, one might use baneful or baleful.

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