ominous
adjUK /ˈɒmɪnəs/ · US /ˈɑmɪnəs/
Etymology From Latin ōminōsus (“full of foreboding”), from ōmen (“forbidden fruit, omen”), from Old Latin osmen, of uncertain origin, with many origins proposed (see ōmen).
1
Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant.
- In Cornouaille, Brittany, it is popularly believed that the weather of the last six days of December and the first six of January prognosticates the weather of the twelve months; but in other parts of Brittany it is the first twelve days of January that are supposed to be ominous of the weather for the year.1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 324:
2
Specifically, giving indication of a coming ill; being an evil omen
- California poll support for Jerry Brown's tax increases has ominous implications for U.S. taxpayers too Los Angeles Times Headline April 25, 2011
- The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogurt!) is amusing in itself, as is the idea that frogurt could be cursed, but it’s really the Shopkeeper’s quicksilver shift from ominous doomsaying to chipper salesmanship that sells the sequence.2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in The A.V. Club:
1 more example
- After growing substantially in the 1990s and modestly in the 2000s, the total number of American kids fell from 2010 through 2019, an ominous milestone.2021 April 23, Ronald Brownstein, “The racist ‘replacement theory’ has it all backward”, in CNN:
- Synonyms
26 terms
augurous, baleful, bodeful, boding, dire, disastrous, divine, fatal, foreboding, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, inauspicate, inauspicious, nefastous, omenic, ominous, brooding, portentous, presageful, presagious, prodigious, sinister, star-crossed, sullen- Antonyms
- auspicious, omenless, unomened
- Derived terms
- ominosity, ominously, ominousness, unominous
- Related terms
- omen, abomination