Synonyms of foreboding

foreboding 1 of 3

adjective

as in ominous

being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come

foreboding clouds began to gather

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ominous
• sinister
• menacing
• bleak
• threatening
• somber
• dark
• portentous
• darkening
• minatory
• murky
• lonely
• desolate
• dire
• direful
• depressing
• inauspicious
• black
• depressive
• baleful
• doomy
• ill
• unfortunate
• gray
• ill-boding
• morbid
• gloomy
• cold
• morose
• dim
• unfavorable
• elegiac
• lugubrious
• funereal
• cheerless
• sepulchral
• sullen
• saturnine
• dismal
• dreary
• lonesome
• disconsolate
• drear
• glum
• troubled
• discouraging
• forlorn
• cloudy
• chill
• disheartening
• comfortless
• unpropitious
• hopeless
• unpromising
• miserable
• tenebrous
• evil
• malignant
• sunless
• plutonian
• dreich
• godforsaken
• Cimmerian
• malign
• wretched
• unlucky
• tenebrific
• ill-starred
• ill-fated
• star-crossed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• favorable
• bright
• benign
• hopeful
• golden
• promising
• unthreatening
• prosperous
• encouraging
• auspicious
• propitious
• heartening

foreboding

2 of 3

noun

(ˌ)fȯr-ˈbō-diŋ 

1

as in feel

a feeling that something bad will happen

I have this strange foreboding that your ski vacation will not turn out well, so be extra careful

Synonyms & Similar Words

• feel
• premonition
• fear
• suspicion
• worry
• presentiment
• anticipation
• anxiety
• presage
• prognostication
• portent
• intuition
• omen
• apprehension
• unease
• insight
• sign
• foreknowledge
• impression
• uneasiness
• concern
• dread
• doubt
• nervousness
• apprehensiveness
• perturbation
• agitation
• alarm
• disquiet
• augury
• anxiousness
• foresight
• misgiving
• prescience
• care

2

as in portent

something believed to be a sign or warning of a future event

used to think that if he saw a blackbird fly over his left shoulder it was a foreboding of harm

Synonyms & Similar Words

• portent
• forerunner
• foreshadowing
• omen
• hint
• precursor
• prediction
• presage
• suggestion
• augury
• boding
• herald
• prefiguring
• prophecy
• straw in the wind
• harbinger
• intimation
• inkling
• auspice
• badge
• foretaste
• forewarning
• forecast
• prognostication
• foretelling
• token
• divination
• mark
• note

3

as in dread

suspicion or fear of future harm or misfortune

a pessimist who is always overcome by a sense of foreboding before flying on an airplane

Synonyms & Similar Words

• dread
• worry
• anxiety
• uncertainty
• fearfulness
• unease
• apprehension
• concern
• apprehensiveness
• alarm
• misgiving
• suspense
• uneasiness
• perturbation
• distress
• doubt
• disquiet
• funk
• disquietude
• wariness
• agitation
• mistrust
• disturbance
• pessimism
• solicitude
• premonition
• anxiousness
• defeatism
• presentiment
• suspiciousness
• incertitude
• foreknowledge
• scruple
• presage

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• anticipation
• excitement
• hope
• hopefulness
• optimism
• confidence
• sanguinity

foreboding

3 of 3

verb

variants also forboding

present participle of forebode

as in promising

to show signs of a favorable or successful outcome

the dry summer doesn't forebode well for the harvest

Synonyms & Similar Words

• promising
• boding
• auguring
• predicting
• presaging
• foretelling
• warning
• bidding fair
• foreshadowing
• portending
• forecasting
• prophesying
• forewarning
• prognosticating
• betokening
• foreseeing
• divining
• anticipating
• intimating
• hinting
• prefiguring
• indicating
• alluding
• implying
• connoting
• foreknowing
• harbingering
• signifying
• suggesting
• presignifying
• insinuating

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of foreboding

Adjective

The number of American forces in the Caribbean Sea now is also smaller and far less foreboding than the massive military buildup off Venezuela’s coast in the months ahead of Maduro’s ouster, Finucane said. — Ben Finley, Fortune, 23 May 2026

One half of the women’s tournament looks more foreboding than the other. — Ava Wallace, New York Times, 21 May 2026

Noun

The six-minute quasi-title track works as a centerpiece, its compressed qanun (a stringed Middle Eastern instrument, played here by the acclaimed Syrian musician Maya Youssef) looping in the background as electronic pulses, foreboding pianos, and disembodied voices swirl around the mix. — Alex Robert Ross, Pitchfork, 15 June 2026

With each encounter, the mystery of Molineux’s whereabouts mounts, though the sense of foreboding is cut by the comedy of our hero’s haplessness. — John Swansburg, The Atlantic, 15 June 2026

Verb

There was no obvious precipitating event, but the encroachment of Grok seemed foreboding. — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2026

The windowless hallways are narrow in the federal building that houses this immigration court, and the agents’ stocky bodies are foreboding in the tight corridors. — Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN Money, 1 Dec. 2025