inauspicious
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inauspicious
First recorded in 1585–95; in- 3 + auspicious
Explanation
Reaching into your hat to pull out a rabbit and instead removing a sock can seem like an inauspicious start to your magic show. Inauspicious describes something that seems unpromising or unlikely to be successful. If it's unlucky, badly timed, or it seems to point to an unhappy outcome, it's inauspicious. A dark, stormy sky on the day of a wedding can be seen as inauspicious, and so can an awkward job interview. The opposite of inauspicious is auspicious, which means lucky or promising. Both words come from the Latin auspicium, which has to do with predicting the future by observing the flight of birds.
Vocabulary lists containing inauspicious
Romeo and Juliet
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 5
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Twelfth Night
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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.
Trump had headed into Davos late, after Air Force One broke down -- an inauspicious start to his trip.
From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026
Weiss has also overseen the so-far inauspicious revamp of “CBS Evening News” with its new anchor Tony Dokoupil.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 18, 2026
Less than seven months have passed since that inauspicious debut, and Yesavage isn’t in Dunedin anymore.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 30, 2025
Ballesteros, who had made an inauspicious debut in 1979, winning one and losing four of his matches, secured 2½ points from four outings with 20-year-old rookie Paul Way.
From BBC • Sep. 23, 2025
First contacts between outsiders and New Guinea groups are always potentially dangerous, but this beginning was especially inauspicious.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
