omen

---

Etymology

From Latin ōmen.

Pronunciation

• (British) IPA: /ˈəʊmən/
• (America) IPA: /ˈoʊmən/

Noun

omen (plural omens)

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.

   A rise in imports might be an omen of economic recovery.

   The egg has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen.

2. A thing of prophetic significance.

   A sign of ill omen.

Synonyms

• augury, auspice, forecast, foreshadowing, foretoken, forewarning, harbinger, herald, hint, indication, oracle, portent, prediction, presage, prophecy, sign, signal, token, warning; danger sign, straw in the wind, (hand)writing on the wall; see also Thesaurus:omen

Related terms

• ominous
• abomination

Translations

• French: présage
• German: Omen
• Italian: presagio, segno, auspicio, augurio, premonizione, presentimento
• Portuguese: augúrio, agouro, presságio, vaticínio
• Russian: зна́мение
• Spanish: presagio

Translations

• French: présage
• German: Omen
• Italian: presagio, augurio, prenunzio, indizio, premonizione, profezia
• Portuguese: presságio

Verb

omen (omens, present participle omening; simple past and past participle omened)

1. (transitive) To be an omen of.
2. (intransitive) To divine or predict from omens.

Synonyms

• prognosticate, betoken, forecast, foretell, portend, foreshadow, bode, augur, prefigure, predict, auspicate, presage

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002