ZebraWords.com - The Definition of 'Ominous', Synonyms of 'Ominous' & More on 'Ominous'

1. WordNet® 3.0 (2006)

ominous
    adj 1: threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments;
           "a baleful look"; "forbidding thunderclouds"; "his tone
           became menacing"; "ominous rumblings of discontent";
           "sinister storm clouds"; "a sinister smile"; "his
           threatening behavior"; "ugly black clouds"; "the
           situation became ugly" [syn: baleful, forbidding,
           menacing, minacious, minatory, ominous,
           sinister, threatening]
    2: presaging ill fortune; "ill omens"; "ill predictions"; "my
       words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven"-
       P.B.Shelley; "a dead and ominous silence prevailed"; "a by-
       election at a time highly unpropitious for the Government"
       [syn: ill, inauspicious, ominous]

2. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Ominous \Om"i*nous\, a. [L. ominosus, fr. omen. See Omen.]
   Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting
   an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a
   favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter;
   foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous
   dread.
   [1913 Webster]

         He had a good ominous name to have made a peace.
                                                  --Bacon.
   [1913 Webster]

         In the heathen worship of God, a sacrifice without a
         heart was accounted ominous.             --South.
   [1913 Webster] -- Om"i*nous*ly, adv. -- Om"i*nous*ness,
   n.
   [1913 Webster]

Thesaurus Results for ominous:

1. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

abusive, admonitory, apocalyptic, augural, bad, badly off, baleful, baneful, black, bludgeoning, blustering, bodeful, boding, browbeating, bulldozing, bullying, cautionary, comminatory, corroding, corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, damaging, dark, deadly, deleterious, denunciatory, depressed, detrimental, dire, direful, disadvantageous, disserviceable, distressing, donsie, doomful, dreary, evil, evil-starred, fatal, fateful, fear-inspiring, forbidding, foreboding, foreshadowing, foretelling, foretokening, fortuneless, funest, gloomy, grim, hapless, harmful, hectoring, hostile, hurtful, ill, ill off, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, imminent, in adverse circumstances, inauspicious, indicative, inhospitable, injurious, intimidating, lethal, lowering, luckless, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malign, malignant, mantic, meaningful, menacing, minacious, minatory, mischievous, noisome, noxious, of evil portent, oracular, out of luck, pernicious, planet-struck, poisonous, portending, portentous, predictive, prejudicial, premonitory, prognostic, prophetic, sad, scatheful, short of luck, sibyllic, sinister, somber, star-crossed, terroristic, terrorizing, threatening, threatful, toxic, unblessed, underprivileged, unfavorable, unfortunate, unfriendly, unhappy, unlucky, unpromising, unpropitious, unprosperous, unprovidential, untoward, vaticinal, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, virulent, warning

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