In the last few years many new cell death modalities have been described. To classify different types of cell death, the term 'regulated cell death' was introduced to discriminate it from 'accidental cell death'. Regulated cell death involves the activation of genetically encoded molecular machinery that couples the presence of some signal to cell death. These forms of cell death, like apoptosis, necroptosis and pyroptosis have important physiological roles in development, tissue repair, and immunity. Accidental cell death occurs in response to physical or chemical insults and occurs independently of molecular signalling pathways. Ferroptosis, an emerging and recently (re)discovered type of regulated cell death occurs through Fe(II)-dependent lipid peroxidation when the reduction capacity of a cell is insufficient. Ferroptosis is coined after the requirement for free ferrous iron. Here, we will consider the extent to which ferroptosis is similar to other regulated cell deaths and explore emerging ideas about the physiological role of ferroptosis.