ominous
If something looks or sounds ominous, be careful: a threat or an unpleasant event is at hand. If you see an ominous frown on your boss's face, you're in trouble!
Ominous, and the related word omen both come from the 16th century Latin word ōmen "foreboding." However, unlike omen, which is a sign of something good or bad to come, ominous always describes something unpleasant or threatening. If the future looks ominous, you've got nothing to look forward to. Figuratively, an ominous sky or ominous clouds promise rain or a storm.
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threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments“ominous rumblings of discontent”
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synonyms:
baleful, forbidding, menacing, minacious, minatory, sinister, threatening
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alarming
frightening because of an awareness of danger
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alarming
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presaging ill fortune
/ˈɑmənəs/
/ˈɒmɪnəs/
Vocabulary lists containing ominous
With a name that translates into Stout Heart, fifteen-year-old Mafatu, the son of the Great Chief of the Polynesian island of Hikueru, is determined to conquer his fear of the sea.
In this first book of the Samurai Detective series set in 18th-century Japan, Konoike Seikei, a tea merchant’s son dreaming of becoming a noble warrior-poet, helps a judge solve the mystery of a missing jewel.
When almost-eight-year-old Georgie Burgess wins a rosebush from a Florida grocery store, he seeks to give it the tender-loving home that he has never known.
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