Answers:
They are essentially the same, but slightly different.
Fatal means causing or capable of causing death like a "fatal car accident" or a "fatal blow to the head"...something happened and it was fatal.
Whereas lethal usually refers to an object, etc. that causes death. A knife can be lethal, but a stab wound can be fatal. Lethal refers more to the nature of the object, saying that it can kill. While fatal refers more to the result of something that happened
Fatal also always implies death. Not so with lethal. You could be running for an elected office and say something that is lethal to your campaign. Your campaign dies, but no people die. You could say that your words were "a fatal blow to your campaign", but you wouldn't say that your campaign "suffered a fatality".
"The lethal injection was fatal" is correct
"The fatal injection was lethal" sounds awkward and is redundant.
why? The first sentence implies that the injection was lethal, but if you don't give enough to a person, or if, by some chance, they aren't killed by it, then the injection wasn't necessarily "fatal". With the second sentence though, if it was a fatal injection, then we know that the person is dead and so "lethal" is unnecessary.
They are very subtle differences that some people may even argue with.
It's sort of preferential, though in a lot of cases, one sounds better than the other. The more you experience the words, the easier it will come.
Usage is slightly different, but they essentially mean the same thing.
American Heritage® Dictionary: Description of lethal
ADJECTIVE: 1. Capable of causing death
American Heritage® Dictionary: Description of fatal
ADJECTIVE: 1. Causing or capable of causing death.
Not much difference according to American Heritage Dictionary.
I don't know what Mr Webster would say, but I think "lethal" is something that is capable of causing death while "fatal" is an adjective used after this death occurred.
No they both imply that something is going to die, although with todays technology that is not the sure thing it once was.
Lethal is usually used to describe something that can be used to cause death, like a lethal weapon.
Fatal is usually used to describe something that will kill you if you get it (or get in its way).
lethal - may cause death
fatal - will cause death
Lethal capable of causing death, whereas fatal IS
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