foreboding

being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come foreboding war clouds began to gather Synonyms baleful, dire, direful, doomy, ominous, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, threateningRelated Words black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched; discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious; ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky; evil, malign, malignantNear Antonyms auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperousAntonyms unthreatening

1 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 premonition, presage, presentiment, prognosticationRelated Words anticipation, foreknowledge; feel, insight, intuition; augury, omen, portent, sign; impression, suspicion; agitation, alarm (also alarum), anxiety, anxiousness, apprehension, apprehensiveness, care, concern, disquiet, doubt, dread, fear, misgiving, nervousness, perturbation, unease, uneasiness, worry; foresight, prescience

2 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 augury, auspice, boding, omen, foreshadowing, portent, prefiguring, presageRelated Words forerunner, harbinger, herald, precursor; foretaste, hint, inkling, intimation, suggestion; forewarning; forecast, foretelling, prediction, prognostication, prophecy (also prophesy); badge, mark, note, token; divination

3 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 alarm (also alarum), apprehensiveness, dread, apprehension, misgivingRelated Words agitation, anxiety, anxiousness, concern, disquiet, disquietude, distress, disturbance, fearfulness, funk, perturbation, solicitude, suspense, unease, uneasiness; scruple, worry; doubt, incertitude, mistrust, suspiciousness, uncertainty, wariness; defeatism, pessimism; foreknowledge, premonition, presage, presentimentNear Antonyms anticipation, excitement, hope, hopefulness; confidence, optimism, sanguinity