presentiment
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of presentiment
1705–15; < French, now obsolete spelling of pressentiment. See pre-, sentiment
Explanation
Do you ever have the feeling that something bad is about to happen? That’s called a presentiment. The word presentiment comes from the Latin word præsentire, meaning “to sense beforehand.” Some people call it a "gut feeling." For example, if you leave for a trip and something doesn't feel right, you may chalk it up to just being nervous. But later, when your flight is cancelled and you lose your luggage, you may remember that little twinge — the presentiment that something bad was about to happen.
Vocabulary lists containing presentiment
Common Senses: Sent, Sens ("Feel")
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Grade 12, List 6
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Jane Eyre
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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.
It’s the type of hazards and presentiment that feel inherent to womanhood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2024
Though it got pretty bad reviews at the time, it now looks like a presentiment of the trauma launched on New York on 9/11.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 27, 2020
That image, the presentiment it carried, startled him out of his own morass, he said.
From New York Times ● Jul. 23, 2010
Or maybe Mami had a presentiment of what was to come.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 15, 2010
A scream was building in Sarai’s mind, and, with it, an awful presentiment that the pall of doom of the past day had been leading to this moment.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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.
