Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sense of impending evil or misfortune.
- n. An evil omen; a portent.
- adj. Marked by or indicative of foreboding; ominous.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Presage; foreshadowing; ominous suggestion.
- n. Synonyms Portent, Prognostic, etc. See omen.
Wiktionary
- n. A sense of evil to come.
- n. An evil omen.
- adj. Of ominous significance; serving as an ill omen; foretelling of harm or difficulty.
- v. present participle of forebode.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Presage of coming ill; expectation of misfortune.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a feeling of evil to come
- adj. ominously prophetic
- n. an unfavorable omen
Etymologies
- fore- + boding (Wiktionary)
Examples
“With much foreboding from the other characters as to how the disaster has altered the healthy course of her mind, she commits herself to the path of revenge and vows to regain their inheritance from her bitter uncle or his invalid son.”
“The word foreboding it self means premonition of something is coming, the video and scenes, I have purposely made them mysterious, a bit unconnected, yet a bit revealing the gist of the story of the curse, that something is coming, "The Curse," a confrontation, revealed in the end of the Unveiled version.”
“Kazinski — the real foreboding is that a couple of minutes won’t really answer the question (unless the question is just did people ever use the term ‘police officer’ before 1960″?).”
“At the start of the quick-cut teaser, Crockett (Colin Farrell) says: "You understand the meaning of the word foreboding?”
“From Winchester!" said Cadfael with certainty, recalling the foreboding, the cloud and the fire.”
“A sense that in a human might have been called foreboding filled the rogue; but it had no time for even meta-emotions; it was driving ever closer to its enemy sun, and it needed all its forces for the task ahead.”
“Many persons have an obscure perception -- a foreboding, which is to them always indicative of an approaching earthquake.”
“But transcending all the sport and all the foreboding was the performance of one man.”
“Besides Sam and (to Cam's surprise) Vala succumbing to baby-talk with Teyla's kid, the most interesting thing to happen so far is Teal'c, expression foreboding, fending off Zelenka, Simpson, and Biro with one hand while Ronon pins a squawking McKay to a wall and performs a thorough body search for misappropriated snack foods.”
“Oddly enough, the PBS offering is showier and more melodramatic, embellished with the kind of foreboding sound effects and stark black-and-white photographs that are a specialty of Sept. 11 films or accounts on the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis," writes reviewer Allesandra Stanley.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘foreboding’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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writing first chapter
revolve, vital, necessity, depict, archery, indegenous, native, lacrosse, similarly, recess, composition, indicator and 91 more...
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jaradgiese's Words
paronomasia, ostensible, insouciant, sobriquet, burlesque, insalubrious, apotheosis, hyperbole, connubial, felicity, florid, conurbation and 642 more...
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Angels and Demons Word list
behemoth, disquietude, exalted, heretical, schlock, delirium, precipice, infallible, fathom, fervent, cavern, ardent and 35 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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soph2's Words
serendipity, audacity, groak, petrichor, lethologica, loganamnosis, agnuopia, dysania, dysphagia, neologism, incredulity, harbinger and 246 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Gotim
Aries, fire, chaos, destruction, Mars, aggression, bold, competetive, conflict, raw, black, red and 165 more...
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Tory's First Wordie List
perambulate, mumpsimus, euphoric, peripatetic, mellifluous, soporific, neologism, nihilism, nepotism, effervescent, lascivious, esoteric and 217 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for foreboding.

istanb4u I love using this word in conversation. It never fails to gets the point across. Jun 8, 2009