harbinger

American  

[hahr-bin-jer] / ˈhɑr bɪn dʒər /

noun

• harbingers
  plural

1. 

   a person who goes ahead and makes known the approach of another; herald.

2. anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign.

   Frost is a harbinger of winter.

   Synonyms:

   indication, portent, precursor, forerunner, herald

3. a person sent in advance of troops, a royal train, etc., to provide or secure lodgings and other accommodations.

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verb (used with object)

1. to act as harbinger to; herald the coming of.

harbinger British  

/ ˈhɑːbɪndʒə /

noun

1. a person or thing that announces or indicates the approach of something; forerunner

2. obsolete a person sent in advance of a royal party or army to obtain lodgings for them

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verb

1. (tr) to announce the approach or arrival of

Usage

What does harbinger mean? Harbinger most commonly means an omen or a sign of something to come. Harbinger can also mean a person sent ahead to make people aware that someone else is coming (such as a king) or to make preparations (such as for an army), but these meanings are much less common. Harbinger can also be used as a verb meaning to act as a sign or omen. Example: These flowers are always the first to bloom, so people consider them harbingers of spring.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• harbingers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of harbinger

First recorded in 1125–75; late Middle English herbenger, nasalized variant of Middle English herbegere, dissimilated variant of Old French herberg(i)ere “host,” equivalent to herberg(ier) “to shelter” (from Germanic; see harbor) + -iere -er ²

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Explanation

A harbinger is something that comes before and that shows what will follow in the future. The robin is a harbinger of spring — its presence means spring is coming soon. The appearance of a ghost is often thought of as a harbinger of death. Middle English herbergere is from Old French herbergeor, "host," from herberge, "camp, shelter," a word ultimately borrowed from a Germanic language.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

harbinger harbingers

What has been a reliable harbinger of trouble for stocks and the U.S. economy has begun to emerge in the $31.5 trillion Treasury market.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

For Bank of America’s chief equity strategist, this may be a harbinger of a “risk-off summer,” especially if it coincides with a yield-curve inversion and a breakdown in tech stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026

That may bode well for Micron, given that the South Korean stocks tend to act as a harbinger of what’s to come for the U.S. market.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

"It's potentially significant. We don't know if it was a one-time event or a harbinger of broader things," Sacks said.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

As Blackmon notes: “The apparent demise...of leasing prisoners seemed a harbinger of a new day. But the harsher reality of the South was that the new post-Civil War neoslavery was evolving—not disappearing.”

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

This eastward movement of warmer water is one of the harbingers of El Niño.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Whales, she said, can be harbingers of bigger changes under the surface of the ocean.

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026

Modern Western culture caricatures vultures as undertakers, grim harbingers of death and hardly ideal images of maternal love.

From Salon ● May 11, 2025

Bulbs are defiant harbingers of spring in colder climes, sometimes pushing up through the snow in their zeal to greet the sun and spread a little color on a bleak landscape of slushy grays.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2025

Our present spaceships, with their robot crews, are the harbingers, the vanguards of future human expeditions to the planets.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

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Related Words

• omen
• portent
• precursor

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