Ominous
adjective
Giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen.
She heard the ominous click of the door locking behind her.
Often appears as...
- ominous silence
- ominous signs
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen.
She heard the ominous click of the door locking behind her.
Often appears as...
- ominous silence
- ominous signs
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Feel
‘Ominous’ describes situations filled with a sense of threat or danger.
The sky looked ominous with dark clouds gathering.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Always Visible
Something ominous suggests a feeling of evil or harm that is not necessarily visible.
An ominous presence lingered in the abandoned house.
Pro Tip 3/3Enhance with Adverbs
Use adverbs to intensify the sense of dread, such as 'highly' or 'increasingly'.
The silence became increasingly ominous as he entered the room.
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Feel
‘Ominous’ describes situations filled with a sense of threat or danger.
The sky looked ominous with dark clouds gathering.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Always Visible
Something ominous suggests a feeling of evil or harm that is not necessarily visible.
An ominous presence lingered in the abandoned house.
Pro Tip 3/3Enhance with Adverbs
Use adverbs to intensify the sense of dread, such as 'highly' or 'increasingly'.
The silence became increasingly ominous as he entered the room.
Pro Tip 1/3Negative Feel
‘Ominous’ describes situations filled with a sense of threat or danger.
The sky looked ominous with dark clouds gathering.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Always Visible
Something ominous suggests a feeling of evil or harm that is not necessarily visible.
An ominous presence lingered in the abandoned house.
Pro Tip 3/3Enhance with Adverbs
Use adverbs to intensify the sense of dread, such as 'highly' or 'increasingly'.
The silence became increasingly ominous as he entered the room.
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Video examples
Learning from past...
perfectly until one day he said when he's discussed our relationship sounded very ominous when he took me nearby to the lake conveniently called lake lyndon baines johnson and there was wine and cheese in a red check tablecloth all the romantic trappings and he started out Doris more than any other woman I have
Video examples
The strange story of the...
that stature was being crushed, and the animal that he had roped to a tree really was a symbol for all bears. Whether those animals lived or died now was entirely up to the compassion or the indifference of people. That said something really ominous about the future of bears,
Video examples
The case against "good"...
this fuzzy picture that reflects no real truth. Replace them with grittier, exact terms that have been buried in our Lexis, waiting to see daylight. No longer does the weather look good or bad, the weather looks ominous or exhilarating. Nothing tastes good or bad.
Video examples
Let's clean up the space...
Satellites in high orbits like these could remain there for centuries. And then there's the orbit coined "the graveyard," the ominous junk or disposal orbits, where some satellites are intentionally placed at the end of their life
Video examples
How to recover from...
a ring that could have saved a life. "Beat." is our project exploring the ominous silence surrounding domestic violence. We filmed the experiment, and it became instantly viral. Our campaign amplified the voices of survivors
Video examples
How Did the 'Unsinkable'...
an ominous consequence of this overconfidence during its voyage there were no passenger safety drills to give instructions on where to go or which lifeboats aboard in case of emergency but there weren't enough lifeboats to
Video examples
Zainab Salbi: Women,...
that nothing can protect your eyes from it. I grew up with the sounds of war -- the staccato sounds of gunfire, the wrenching booms of explosions, ominous drones of jets flying overhead
Video examples
Living in a shadow PIPE...
but throughout her pregnancy she had premonitions pains that her midwife explained away in her sketchbook Margaret made lists of carcinogens and ominous assemblages of words far away
Video examples
For When you Need a Good...
While Mark's research has shown that mountain lion fights are rare, the signs are ominous. Marc heads off to solve the mystery.
Video examples
Mountain Lion Mother's...
research has shown that mountain land fights are rare the signs are ominous mark heads off to solve the mystery
Video examples
Learning from past...
perfectly until one day he said when he's discussed our relationship sounded very ominous when he took me nearby to the lake conveniently called lake lyndon baines johnson and there was wine and cheese in a red check tablecloth all the romantic trappings and he started out Doris more than any other woman I have
Video examples
The strange story of the...
that stature was being crushed, and the animal that he had roped to a tree really was a symbol for all bears. Whether those animals lived or died now was entirely up to the compassion or the indifference of people. That said something really ominous about the future of bears,
Video examples
The case against "good"...
this fuzzy picture that reflects no real truth. Replace them with grittier, exact terms that have been buried in our Lexis, waiting to see daylight. No longer does the weather look good or bad, the weather looks ominous or exhilarating. Nothing tastes good or bad.
Video examples
Let's clean up the space...
Satellites in high orbits like these could remain there for centuries. And then there's the orbit coined "the graveyard," the ominous junk or disposal orbits, where some satellites are intentionally placed at the end of their life
Video examples
How to recover from...
a ring that could have saved a life. "Beat." is our project exploring the ominous silence surrounding domestic violence. We filmed the experiment, and it became instantly viral. Our campaign amplified the voices of survivors
Video examples
How Did the 'Unsinkable'...
an ominous consequence of this overconfidence during its voyage there were no passenger safety drills to give instructions on where to go or which lifeboats aboard in case of emergency but there weren't enough lifeboats to
Video examples
Zainab Salbi: Women,...
that nothing can protect your eyes from it. I grew up with the sounds of war -- the staccato sounds of gunfire, the wrenching booms of explosions, ominous drones of jets flying overhead
Video examples
Living in a shadow PIPE...
but throughout her pregnancy she had premonitions pains that her midwife explained away in her sketchbook Margaret made lists of carcinogens and ominous assemblages of words far away
Video examples
For When you Need a Good...
While Mark's research has shown that mountain lion fights are rare, the signs are ominous. Marc heads off to solve the mystery.
Video examples
Mountain Lion Mother's...
research has shown that mountain land fights are rare the signs are ominous mark heads off to solve the mystery
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Kenneth Cole
American Designer
My first AIDS campaign was in 1985. There was this dark cloud, everybody was socially inspired - we hadn't seen social consciousness like that since the '60s - but most people were talking about hunger in Africa. Nobody was talking about this really ominous circumstance here in the U.S. because of this fear of stigma.
Quote examples
Karen Kilgariff
American Writer
Every true-crime thing you see goes in with that kind of ominous music and low lighting, so to be able to talk about these things but not have to feel somber about it and not feel guilty that you're not feeling somber about it - I think that's what appeals to me.
Quote examples
Thomas Sowell
American Economist
What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.
Quote examples
Killian Scott
Irish Actor
Broadchurch' was very naturalistically shot, in many respects, whereas 'Dublin Murders' has a slightly heightened element cinematically, because there is a supernatural, ominous quality - particularly in the woods.
Quote examples
Cordell Hull
American Public Servant
Under the ominous shadow which the second World War and its attendant circumstances have cast on the world, peace has become as essential to civilized existence as the air we breathe is to life itself.
Quote examples
Tim Commerford
American Musician
The computer has always been this ominous, scary thing that came into music, for me, in the early '90s, right when I first started playing music.
Quote examples
Lionel Shriver
American Journalist
Overly vigorous investigations of ominously ill-defined 'bullying' can themselves constitute a form of bullying.
Quote examples
Philip Schultz
American Poet
The word 'novel' carries, for me, a weight as ominous, all-consuming and unforgiving as any Job encountered.
Quote examples
Daniel Dae Kim
South Korean Actor
I like to think that I'm not as ominous in real life.
Quote examples
Jenna Morasca
American Model
Why do waiting rooms have to be so ominous?
Quote examples
Kenneth Cole
American Designer
My first AIDS campaign was in 1985. There was this dark cloud, everybody was socially inspired - we hadn't seen social consciousness like that since the '60s - but most people were talking about hunger in Africa. Nobody was talking about this really ominous circumstance here in the U.S. because of this fear of stigma.
Quote examples
Karen Kilgariff
American Writer
Every true-crime thing you see goes in with that kind of ominous music and low lighting, so to be able to talk about these things but not have to feel somber about it and not feel guilty that you're not feeling somber about it - I think that's what appeals to me.
Quote examples
Thomas Sowell
American Economist
What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.
Quote examples
Killian Scott
Irish Actor
Broadchurch' was very naturalistically shot, in many respects, whereas 'Dublin Murders' has a slightly heightened element cinematically, because there is a supernatural, ominous quality - particularly in the woods.
Quote examples
Cordell Hull
American Public Servant
Under the ominous shadow which the second World War and its attendant circumstances have cast on the world, peace has become as essential to civilized existence as the air we breathe is to life itself.
Quote examples
Tim Commerford
American Musician
The computer has always been this ominous, scary thing that came into music, for me, in the early '90s, right when I first started playing music.
Quote examples
Lionel Shriver
American Journalist
Overly vigorous investigations of ominously ill-defined 'bullying' can themselves constitute a form of bullying.
Quote examples
Philip Schultz
American Poet
The word 'novel' carries, for me, a weight as ominous, all-consuming and unforgiving as any Job encountered.
Quote examples
Daniel Dae Kim
South Korean Actor
I like to think that I'm not as ominous in real life.
Quote examples
Jenna Morasca
American Model
Why do waiting rooms have to be so ominous?
Example 1 of 10
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