foreboding
/fɔɹˈbɔʊdɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.79 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of ominous significance; serving as an ill omen; foretelling of harm or difficulty.
Example Sentences
- "To me there is something sad in his life, and sometimes I have a sort of foreboding about him. I don't know why, but I fancy he will have some great trouble—perhaps an unhappy end."
- "A sense of foreboding, the like of which he had never known before, hung heavily on him."
- "I feel a slight foreboding about going home this year."
- "Blood on the street / Foreboding god complex / She never knew she was next"
Etymology
From Middle English forbodyng, vorboding, equivalent to fore- + bode + -ing. Compare German Vorbote (“harbinger, omen”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: forbodyng
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fɔɹˈbɔʊdɪŋ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
forebodings (plural)
forboding (alternative)
more foreboding (comparative)
most foreboding (superlative)