different between ominous vs augury

English

Etymology

From Latin ominosus (“full of foreboding”), from omen (“forbidden fruit, omen”), from os (“the mouth”) + -men.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??m?n?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??m?n?s/
• Hyphenation: o?mi?nous

Adjective

ominous (comparative more ominous, superlative most ominous)

1. Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant.
2. Specifically, giving indication of a coming ill; being an evil omen

   Synonyms: threatening, portentous, inauspicious

   • California poll support for Jerry Brown's tax increases has ominous implications for U.S. taxpayers too Los Angeles Times Headline April 25, 2011

Usage notes

• Formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshadowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread.
• Nouns to which "ominous" is often applied: sign, silence, warning, cloud, note, sound, shadow, threat, music, tone, implication, message, presence, development, voice, portent, turn, sky, figure, dream, event, trend, change, day, beginning, growl, cry, signal, pattern.

Synonyms

• portentous
• sinister
• threatening

Derived terms

• ominously
• ominousness

Related terms

• omen
• abomination

Translations

Further reading

• ominous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ominous in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• suimono

English

Etymology

augur +? -y, or from Middle English augurie, from Old French augurie, from Latin augurium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???.?j?.?i/

Noun

augury (countable and uncountable, plural auguries)

1. A divination based on the appearance and behaviour of animals.
2. (by extension) An omen or prediction; a foreboding; a prophecy.
   • 1850, James Russell Lowell, The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe/Volume 1/Edgar A. Poe

     In Wordsworth's first preludings there is but a dim foreboding of the creator of an era. From Southey's early poems, a safer augury might have been drawn.

   • 1859, George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Chapter 15:

     No augury could be hopefuller. The Fates must indeed be hard, the Ordeal severe, the Destiny dark, that could destroy so bright a Spring!

3. An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:augury.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:omen

Hyponyms

Related terms

• augur

Translations