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

Listening to “Sunburst” now, about the weary rock star, one hears the song as a harbinger of the arduous touring that lay ahead for Mr. Seger as he sustained his realized dream.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

What happened to Native Californians was also a harbinger, not a footnote.

From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026

Industry leaders have been warning that recent cyberattacks are a harbinger.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 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

This is how I think of him: like his namesake, the raven, a harbinger of death and doom.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

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

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026

They are also matter-of-fact, heralds of hard facts rather than harbingers of national guilt in a story to which we think we know the ending.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

Scorsese attributed the early days of Beatlemania as harbingers of an artistic change that not only impacted the 1960s, but that can be felt in the popular culture of the present day.

From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024

Washcloths are particularly controversial: “People get really riled up, like, ‘Washcloths are harbingers of bacteria,’ and ‘If you don’t use a washcloth, you’re dirty.’

From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2024

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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