adjective
- Threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments.
- usage: "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"
- synonyms: baleful, forbidding, menacing, minacious, minatory, sinister, threatening
- Presaging ill fortune.
- usage: "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"
- synonyms: ill, inauspicious
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). ominous. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/ominous/definitions/1179775 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "ominous" http://smartdefine.org/ominous/definitions/1179775 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, ominous, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/ominous/definitions/1179775>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "ominous" 23 October 2010. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/ominous/definitions/1179775> |