- present participle of forebode.
foreboding
Americannoun
-
a prediction; portent.
-
a strong inner feeling or notion of a future misfortune, evil, etc.; presentiment.
adjective
noun
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a feeling of impending evil, disaster, etc
-
an omen or portent
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of foreboding
1350–1400; Middle English forbodyng (noun); see forebode, -ing 1, -ing 2
Explanation
When you get a foreboding, you get a sense that something bad is going to happen. A foreboding is a foretelling, a sign or a glimpse, that "something wicked this way comes" — or might come. If something doesn’t "bode" well, it means that the future doesn't look good. A foreboding is a glimpse or a feeling that bad things are going to happen. It's a premonition, or look into the future. Most times foreboding implies that something evil is coming, but sometimes it's used for anything bad up ahead, as in "she had a foreboding that the trip would get canceled due to the hurricane." Even if the future looks bright, a foreboding casts dread over what's ahead.
Vocabulary lists containing foreboding
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 2
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Power Prefix: fore-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Brook's first act of the day was a foreboding one for England.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
But a 0.1-percent dip in food services sales could reflect that people are opting to drive less -- a foreboding sign for broader spending in the services sector.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
It’s not so much a scream queen kind of horror; it’s this foreboding horror.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
Artisanal makers of goat cheeses can be found along undulating roads through greenery that dead end at the foreboding promontory of Cabo Espichel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Such a place the Fallen Angels might have built as a spite to Heaven, dry and sharp, desolate and dangerous, and for me filled with foreboding.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Dry in a way that seemed to conflict with Washington meteorological measurement and myth, and with our summertime forebodings and apprehensions.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2022
Heaven finds a new life at her estranged grandparents’ exquisite Boston mansion, but even in the world of the wealthy, there are strange forebodings, secrets best forgotten.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2019
Despite their forebodings, the referendum result shocked Irish officials.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 18, 2019
For a year, readers would be invited to send in their dreams and forebodings, which would be compared with actual events.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 25, 2019
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
