premonition
Americannoun
-
a feeling of anticipation of or anxiety over a future event; presentiment.
He had a vague premonition of danger.
- Synonyms:
- sign, omen, portent, foreboding
-
a forewarning.
noun
-
an intuition of a future, usually unwelcome, occurrence; foreboding
-
an early warning of a future event; forewarning
Other Word Forms
- premonitory adjective
Etymology
Origin of premonition
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English premunicioun, from Late Latin praemonitiōn-, stem of praemonitiō “a forewarning”; equivalent to pre- + monition; also praemunire
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.
This imagining stems less from a premonition of the future than a feeling of how deeply she has shaped my present.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 20, 2026
Oddly, that cigar turned out to be an unwitting premonition.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
The first part of Mulder's premonition has proven to be true - Hayen's Brugge beat Villa, Sporting and Sturm Graz in the group phase, as well as drawing with Juventus and Celtic.
From BBC • Mar. 3, 2025
Our former faith in manifest destiny always included another possibility; let’s call it a premonition of manifest doom.
From Salon • Jan. 21, 2025
He didn’t know which premonition the rat was talking about, but he knew enough about the infamous Hesterfowl not to care.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
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.
