different between ominous vs bleak

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bli?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Etymology 1

From Middle English bleke (also bleche > English bleach (“pale, bleak”)), and bleike (due to Old Norse), and earlier Middle English blak, blac (“pale, wan”), from Old English bl?c, bl??, bl?c (“bleak, pale, pallid, wan, livid; bright, shining, glittering, flashing”) and Old Norse bleikr (“pale, whitish”), from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz (“pale, shining”). Cognate with Dutch bleek (“pale, wan, pallid”), Low German blek (“pale”), German bleich (“pale, wan, sallow”), Danish bleg (“pale”), Swedish blek (“pale, pallid”), Norwegian Bokmål bleik, blek (“pale”), Norwegian Nynorsk bleik (“pale”), Faroese bleikur (“pale”), Icelandic bleikur (“pale, pink”).

Adjective

bleak (comparative bleaker, superlative bleakest)

1. Without color; pale; pallid.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead.

2. Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
   • 1793, William Wordsworth, Descriptive Sketches

     Wastes too bleak to rear / The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
3. Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.

Synonyms

• (sickly pale): see also Thesaurus:pallid

Derived terms

• bleaken

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bleke (“small river fish, bleak, blay”), perhaps an alteration (due to English bl?c (“bright”) or Old Norse bleikja) of Old English bl??e (“bleak, blay, gudgeon”); or perhaps from a diminutive of Middle English *bleye (“blay”), equivalent to blay +? -ock or blay +? -kin. See blay.

Noun

bleak (plural bleaks or bleak)

1. A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.

Synonyms

• ablet
• alburn
• blay

Derived terms

• sunbleak

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Balke, Blake, Kaleb, blake