- ominous
- ominous, portentous, fateful, inauspicious, unpropitious basically mean having a menacing or threatening character or quality.What is ominous has or seems to have the character of an omen, especially of an omen forecasting evil; the term commonly suggests a frightening or alarming quality that bodes no good, and it may imply impending disaster{
there was something ominous about it, and in intangible ways one was made to feel that the worst was about to come— London
}{my ears were startled by the . . . uproar of yelling and shouting. It sounded ominous, but ... I had to go on— Heiser
}What is portentous has or seems to have the character of a portent; portentous, however, less often than ominous suggests a threatening character; it usually means little more than prodigious, monstrous, or almost frighteningly marvelous, solemn, or impressive{his gravity was unusual, portentous, and immeasurable— Dickens
}{the assertion that children of six are "mighty prophets, seers blessed," . . . seemed to him portentous nonsense— Babbitt
}{it is portentous . . . that here at midnight, in our little town a mourning figure walks, and will not rest— Lindsay
}What is fateful has or seems to have the quality, character, or importance decreed for it by fate or suggests inevitability{the fateful conference that brought on war
}{to meet a Persian, any Persian, in New York seemed a fateful coincidence— Mehdevi
}but the term often means little more than momentous or appallingly decisive{the great cases that make the work of the United States Supreme Court of fateful significance— Cohen
}What is inauspicious (compare auspicious under FAVORABLE) is or seems to be attended by signs that are distinctly unfavorable{an inauspicious horoscope
}But inauspicious usually means nothing more than unlucky, unfortunate, or unlikely to succeed{an inauspicious beginning of a great project
}{you come at a singularly inauspicious moment, when I need all my strength to forget the world— Sabatini
}What is unpropitious (compare propitious under FAVORABLE)carries or seems to carry no sign of favoring one's ends or intentions{unpropitious omens
}In its more common extended sense the term means merely unfavorable, dis-couraging, or harmful{made a by-election necessary at a time highly unpropitious for the Government— Cockburn
}{sleep and exercise are unpropitious to learning— Jowett
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.