Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A phenomenon supposed to portend good or evil; a prophetic sign.
- noun Prognostication; portent.
- transitive verb To be a prophetic sign of; portend.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A casual event or occurrence supposed to portend good or evil; a sign or indication of some future event; a prognostic; an augury; a presage. See
augur . - noun Synonyms Omen, Portent, Sign, Presage, Prognostic, Augury, Foreboding. Omen and portent are the most weighty and supernatural of these words. Omen and sign are likely to refer to that which is more immediate, the others to the more remote. Omen and portent are external: presage and foreboding are internal and subjective; the others are either internal or external. Sign is the most general. Prognostic applies to the prophesying of states of health or kinds of weather, and is the only one of these words that implies a deduction of effect from the collation of causes. Presage and augury are generally favorable, portent and foreboding always unfavorable, the rest either favorable or unfavorable. Omen and augury are most suggestive of the ancient, practice of consulting the gods through priests or augurs. A foreboding may be mistaken; the others are presumably correct. All these words have considerable freedom in figurative use. See
foretell , v. t. - To prognosticate as an omen; give indication of the future; augur; betoken.
- To foresee or foretell, as by the aid of an omen; divine; predict.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An occurrence supposed to portend, or show the character of, some future event; any indication or action regarded as a foreshowing; a foreboding; a presage; an augury.
- transitive verb To divine or to foreshow by signs or portents; to have omens or premonitions regarding; to predict; to augur.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Something which
portends or is perceived to portend a good or evil event or circumstance in the future; anaugury orforeboding . - noun
prophetic significance - verb To be an omen of.
- verb To
divine orpredict from omens.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a sign of something about to happen
- verb indicate by signs
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Another ill omen is that this past winter was the first in memory that the airlines didn't have dead-of-winter, panicky sales to Europe.
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Funny how your larpdip after omen is mild, while my larp dip is always the worste after omen.
Omen 9 nathreee 2010
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Century City airs Tuesdays (how much of a good omen is that?) at 9: 00 pm EST on CBS ... and starts March 16th.
PROMISING NEW SHOW rabid1st 2004
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If it reach the ground in safety, without being broken, the omen is a most _un_favourable one.
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He then wrote 'The Captive,' obtained an appointment to read it to the Princess of Wales, stumbled, like Cæsar, over a stool; the princess screamed, the omen was a true one -- 'The
Fables of John Gay (Somewhat Altered) John Gay 1708
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The omen could be a dark one for the Obama administration heading into a mid-term election year.
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From henceforth not the first classes, as in the times of Servius, but the prerogative, whether curia, century, or tribe, came first to the suffrage, whose vote was called omen proerogativum, and seldom failed to be leading to the rest of the tribes.
The Commonwealth of Oceana James Harrington 1644
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Events called omen of 'rightward shift' from '60s liberal radicalism here.
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The omen was a picture that his friend Tony, a Christian Buddhist, had taken.
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The omen was a picture that his friend Tony, a Christian Buddhist, had taken.
oroboros commented on the word omen
Nemo in reverse.
July 22, 2007
yarb commented on the word omen
Plural of Oman.
April 6, 2011