Word of the Day
: May 5, 2026augur
playWhat It Means
To augur is to show or suggest, especially from omens, that something might happen in the future. Used most often in formal speech or writing, augur is often followed by an adverb, such as well.
// The downturn augurs badly for the success of the business.
augur in Context
"Last March, almost exactly two decades after his ghost church appeared at the Whitney, [Banks] Violette put another destroyed structure on display: the canopy of an abandoned gas station split in half. ... This wreckage could only augur doom." — Rachel Wetzler, Artforum, 1 Feb. 2026
Did You Know?
In ancient Rome, augurs were official diviners whose function it was to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. We doubt the Romans predicted that their verb augurāre, meaning "to foretell by augury," would evolve into an English verb meaning "presage or foretell," but in retrospect, augur's path must have been in the stars.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Vocabulary
Rearrange the letters to form a word referring to a person who predicts the future by magical, intuitive, or more rational means: YHOTRESOAS
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