Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Foreboding |
ForebodingAdjective1. Of ominous significance. Noun1. A feeling of evil to come: "a steadily escalating sense of foreboding"; "the lawyer had a presentiment that the judge would dismiss the case". 2. An unfavorable omen. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "foreboding" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1726. (references) |
Synonyms: ForebodingSynonyms: fateful (adj), foreboding(a) (adj), portentous (adj), boding (n), premonition (n), presentiment (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Precursor | Noun: precursor, antecedent, precedent, predecessor; forerunner, vancourier, avant-coureur, pioneer, prodrome, prodromos, prodromus, outrider; leader, bellwether; herald, harbinger; foreboding; dawn; avant-courier, avant-garde, bellmare, forelooper, foreloper, stalking-horse, voorlooper, voortrekker. |
Prediction | Noun: prediction, announcement; program, programme; (plan); premonition; (warning); prognosis, prophecy, vaticination, mantology, prognostication, premonstration; augury, auguration; ariolation, hariolation; foreboding, aboding; bodement, abodement; omniation, omniousness; auspices, forecast; omen; horoscope, nativity; sooth, soothsaying; fortune telling, crystal gazing; divination; necromancy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Foreboding |
| English words defined with "foreboding": Abodement, Aboding, Augurous ♦ Forebodement, Forebodingly, Foreholding ♦ Portension, presage, Presagement, Presagious, Presentimental. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "foreboding": City Hall ♦ Nettles ♦ Shark, Snakes, Spring, Sting ♦ Vinegar ♦ Wagon. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "foreboding": Presentimental. (references) |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Heavy foreboding style typical of a military pursuit for a movie soundtrack. | | Foreboding cinematic sound effect signified by clock chiming and storm brewing. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Martin van Buren | 1837-1841 | We have seen time gradually dispel every unfavorable foreboding and our Constitution surmount every adverse circumstance dreaded at the outset as beyond control. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Foreboding" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Foreboding" is used about 122 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 122 | 29,069 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
foreboding | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "foreboding"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | parashikim (anticipation, contemplation, dope, forecast, foresight, precaution, prediction, prescience, prevision, prognosis, prognostic, prognostication, vision), parandjenjë (feeling, misdoubt, presage, prescience, prevision). (various references) | |
Arabic | منذر بشر, هاجس بشر, نذير (harbinger, harbor, harbour, portent, precursor, presage). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | лошо предчувствие (misgiving), поличба (augury, auspice, omen, portent, prognostic, prognostication, sign). (various references) | |
Chinese | 预感. (various references) | |
Czech | předtucha (anticipation, apprehension, hunch, prescience, presentiment). (various references) | |
Finnish | paha aavistus (misgiving). (various references) | |
French | pressentiment. (various references) | |
German | Vorahnung (foreshadowing, intuition, premonition, presage, presentiment), ahnend (forebodingly, guessing, presaging). (various references) | |
Greek | προμήνυμα (bodement, foretoken, omen, portent, presage, prognostication), προαίσθημα (premonition, presage, presentiment). (various references) | |
Hebrew | חשש מ"באות, בואת "לב (hunch, prediction, premonition, presentiment). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rossz előjel, rossz előérzet (apprehension, misgiving, misgivings), előre megsejtés, ómen (augury, boding, omen, portent, presage, prognostication). (various references) | |
Italian | presentimento (augury, misgiving, presentiment), presagio (augury, omen, portent, prediction, presage), predizione (prediction, prognostication, soothsaying). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 虫の知らせ , 予覚 (hunch, premonition). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | むしのしらせ, よかく (complementary angle, hunch, premonition). (various references) | |
Manx | drogh-aaishnys. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | orebodingfay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pressentimento (augury, feeling, hunch, inkling, misgiving, omen, premonition, presage, presentiment), presságio (augury, bodement, boding, earnest, foretoken, indication, omen, portent, premonition, presage, prognostic, prognostication, threat), agouro (bodement, boding, foretoken, indication, omen, portent, presage, prognostic). (various references) | |
Romanian | prevestitor (augur, augural, harbinger, ominous, portentous, precursor, premonitory, prophetic), prevestire (augury, auspice, omen, portent, prediction, presentiment, prognostication, sooth), presimţire rea (misgiving), presentiment (forewarning, presentiment, presentive). (various references) | |
Russian | предчувствие дурного (misgiving), предвещать....дурное предчувствие, плохое предзнаменование. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zlosutan (ominous), slutnja (hunch, misgiving, presage). (various references) | |
Spanish | presentimiento (boding, feeling, misgiving, presage, presentiment, prognostication). (various references) | |
Swedish | förebud (auspice, harbinger, Herald, knell, omen, portent, presage, prognostication). (various references) | |
Turkish | içine doğma (a hunch, premonition, presage, presentiment), önsezi (a hunch, foresight, forethought, hunch, intuition, precognition, premonition, presage, prescience, presentiment, sixth sense, vision). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | погана прикмета, передчуття (anticipation, augury, foretaste, prelibation, premonition, presentiment). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tiên tri (prescient, prophetic, prophetical), sự báo trước (notice, premonition, prognostication, warning), lời tiên đoán, báo trước (boding, premonitory, prognosticative, prognosticatory). (various references) | |
Welsh | darogan (augur, bode, forebode, foretell, predict, prediction). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | omen. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "foreboding": forebodingly, forebodingness, forebodingnesses, forebodings. (additional references) | |
| |
"Foreboding" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: forbodding, forboding, forbodings, forebiding, forebodding, foreboden, forebonding. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "foreboding" (pronounced fôrbō"ding) |
| 4 | -ō" d i ng | coding, decoding, encoding, eroding, exploding, goading, imploding, loading, unloading. |
| 3 | -d i ng | applauding, apprehending, abounding, acceding, according, abiding, adding, affording, aiding, alluding, amending, ascending, astounding, attending, avoiding, awarding, backsliding, balding, banding, bedding, beheading, beholding, bending, bidding, biding, binding, bleeding, blending, blinding, blockading, boarding, bombarding, bonding, bounding, braiding, branding, breading, breeding, brooding, budding, building, cascading, ceding, cheerleading, chiding, clouding, codding, coinciding, colliding, colluding, commanding, commending, compounding, comprehending, conceding, concluding, condescending, confiding, confounding, contending, cording, corresponding, crowding, crusading, deciding, defending, defrauding, defunding, degrading, deluding, demanding, denuding, depending, deriding, descending, disbanding, discarding, disregarding, dividing, downgrading, downloading, dreading, eluding, ending, evading, exceeding, excluding, expanding, expending, expounding, extending, extruding, fading, featherbedding, feeding, fending, feuding, Fielding, finding, flooding, folding, forbidding, forwarding, founding, freestanding, funding, gadding, gilding, girding, Gladding, gliding, Godding, grading, grandstanding, grinding, grounding, guarding, guiding, handholding, handing, heading, heeding, heralding, herding, hiding, hoarding, holding, hounding, impeding, impending, inbreeding, including, intending, interceding, intruding, invading, joyriding, kidding, kneading, lading, landholding, landing, lauding, leading, lending, longstanding, madding, marauding, masquerading, masterminding, Melding, mending, minding, misleading, misreading, misspending, misunderstanding, molding, moulding, needing, nodding, nonbinding, nonbuilding, notwithstanding, offending, outbidding, outspending, outstanding, overbuilding, overcrowding, overextending, overfunding, overloading, overriding, overspending, padding, parading, pending, persuading, pervading, pleading, plodding, portending, pounding, preceding, precluding, presiding, pretending, proceeding, prodding, proofreading, protruding, providing, pudding, punctuating, raiding, railroading, reading, rebounding, rebuilding, receding, recommending, recording, Redding, Reding, refunding, regarding, relending, reminding, rending, rereading, rescinding, residing, resounding, responding, retarding, retreading, rewarding, ridding, riding, rodding, rounding, safeguarding, sanding, scaffolding, scalding, scolding, seceding, seeding, sending, serenading, shading, shedding, shepherding, shielding, shipbuilding, shredding, shrouding, siding, skateboarding, skidding, sledding, sliding, sounding, spearheading, speeding, spellbinding, spending, spreading, stampeding, standing, stranding, striding, subsiding, succeeding, superseding, surrounding, suspending, tending, threading, tiding, trading, transcending, treading, trending, unbending, underfunding, understanding, unending, unfolding, unwinding, unyielding, upgrading, upholding, upstanding, vending, voiding, wading, warding, wedding, weeding, welding, wending, wielding, Wilding, winding, withholding, withstanding, Wooding, wording, wounding, yielding. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-d-e-f-g-i-n-o-o-r" | |
-1 letter: forboding, foredoing. | |
-2 letters: brooding, fordoing, rodeoing. | |
-3 letters: bonfire, boogied, bridoon, eroding, firedog, forbode, fording, fordone, foreign, forgone, fringed, goofier, groined, ignored, negroid, redoing, roofing. | |
-4 letters: begird, binder, binged, binger, biogen, boding, bonder, bonged, bonier, booger, boogie, booing, boride, boring, bridge, brined, dinero, dinger, drongo, engird, eringo, finder, finger, foined, fonder, foodie, forbid, foredo, forego. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-d-e-f-g-i-n-o-o-r" | |
+1 letter: forebodings. | |
+2 letters: forebodingly. | |
+4 letters: forebodingness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Sounds | 5. Quotations: Speeches 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
