premonition

noun

pre·​mo·​ni·​tion ˌprē-mə-ˈni-shən  ˌpre- 

1

: previous notice or warning : forewarning

2

: anticipation of an event without conscious reason : presentiment

Synonyms of premonition

• feel
• presentiment
• fear
• foreboding
• suspicion
• worry
• presage

Examples of premonition in a Sentence

She had a premonition that he would call.

she had a premonition that her cat would somehow get hurt that day

Recent Examples on the Web

The earliest calls feel almost like premonitions, fragile voices that foreshadow the terror that would soon sweep across the Hill Country. —Amanda Jackson, CNN Money, 5 Dec. 2025

These aren’t the first panicked premonitions of a dispersal of New York residents to the suburbs. —Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2025

But when a filmmaker puts his most dismal vision for our collective future onscreen, we’re somehow supposed to pretend these terrible premonitions could never have occurred to little old us, instead hailing them as a feat of imaginative brilliance. —Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 12 Nov. 2025

Had Moehrig had a premonition like that before? —Alex Zietlow november 5, Charlotte Observer, 5 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English premunition, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin premunition-, premunitio, alteration of Late Latin praemonitio, from Latin praemonēre to warn in advance, from prae- + monēre to warn — more at mind

First Known Use

1533, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for premonition

• abolition
• acquisition
• admonition
• ammunition
• apparition
• apposition
• coalition
• competition
• composition
• definition
• deglutition
• demolition

Kids Definition

premonition

noun

pre·​mo·​ni·​tion ˌprē-mə-ˈnish-ən  ˌprem-ə- 

: a feeling that something is going to happen

a premonition of disaster

premonitory

pri-ˈmän-ə-ˌtōr-ē, 

-ˌtȯr-

adjective