ominous
[om-uh-nuh s]
- portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious: an ominous bank of dark clouds.
- indicating the nature of a future event, for good or evil; having the significance of an omen; being a portent: Some of these events were immediately ominous, while others only later revealed themselves as such.
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Origin of ominous
Synonyms
Ominous, portentous, threatening, menacing, fateful are adjectives describing that which forebodes a serious, significant, and often harmful outcome. Ominous, derived from omen “a predictor of outcomes,” usually suggests evil or damaging eventualities: ominous storm clouds; an ominous silence. Portentous, although it may suggest evil results, often stresses a momentous or very important outcome: a portentous moment in history; a portentous escalation of hostilities. Threatening may suggest calamity or great harm but sometimes mere unpleasantness: a threatening rumble from the volcano; A threatening look from his brother caused him to quickly change the subject. Menacing always suggests serious damage as an outcome: a disease menacing the entire population; He advanced with a menacing swagger. Fateful most often stresses the great or decisive importance of what it describes: a fateful encounter between two future leaders; a fateful day that changed our world.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ominousness
Historical Examples
To him, as to his mother, the circumstance had at once conveyed a suggestion of ominousness, a hint of possible evil tidings.
The Cruise of the Nonsuch BuccaneerHarry Collingwood
That face once seen could never be forgotten, and he was overcome by the ominousness of the meeting.
The False ChevalierWilliam Douw Lighthall
Too ominous, Mr. Moore thought: let ominousness be kept for one's attitude towards crime.
East AngelsConstance Fenimore Woolson
Despite the ominousness of the times, Mercer continued with the daily routine, the minutiae of which filled his journal.
The Cultural History of Marlborough, VirginiaC. Malcolm Watkins
ominous
- foreboding evil
- serving as or having significance as an omen
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Word Origin
C16: from Latin ōminōsus, from omen
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for ominousness
ominous
adj.
1580s, from Latin ominosus "full of foreboding," from omen (genitive ominis) "foreboding" (see omen). Related: Ominousness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper