noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Something which portends or is perceived to portend either a good or evil event or circumstance in the future, or which causes a foreboding; a portent or augury.

   "The ghost's appearance was an ill omen."

2. 2
   a sign of something about to happen wordnet
3. 3
   A thing of prophetic significance.

   "A sign of ill omen."

Verb

1. 1
   To be an omen of. transitive
2. 2
   indicate, as with a sign or an omen wordnet
3. 3
   To divine or predict from omens. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

augurauspicatebetokenbodebodeforecast

Example

More examples

"It was the midnight of Friday, 13th; nothing of ill omen was apparent."

Etymology

From Latin ōmen (“foreboding, omen”).

Related phrases

absit omenbird of ill omenbad superstitionmagical signstars are alignedsupernatural sign

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.