Meaning & use

omen

noun·Academic

A sign or event believed to indicate that something, often something significant, will happen in the future.

See it in a sentence

The crows gathering on the roof struck her as a bad omen before the exam.

Sailors once treated a red sky at dawn as an omen of coming storms.

A note on using this word

Omen usually implies a symbolic or superstitious reading of an event, unlike a neutral 'sign' or 'indication.'

Words with a similar meaning

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