auspicious means of good omen; indicating future success. It carries an Arena rating of 1687, earned across 12 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, auspicious ranks #183 of 42,747 for Qualifying, #699 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #700 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,062 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
auspicious is pronounced /ɔːˈspɪ.ʃəs/.
Why “auspicious” is a great word
Marked by favorable signs or circumstances, promising a fortunate outcome. From Latin auspicium ("augury, divination from bird omens"), from auspex ("augur, bird-seer"), from avis ("bird") + specere ("to look at"), first recorded in English use c. 1590s. Unlike "fortuitous" (which describes a happy accident) or "ominous" (which darkly foretells harm), "auspicious" implies a destiny deliberately aligning, a path being cleared by the universe itself. It is the sun breaking through cloud on a wedding morning, the first swallow seen from a ship's rail, the single flawless blossom on a carefully tended tree—a quiet, fragile permission to hope.
Etymology
From auspice + -ious, from Latin auspicium (“augury”), from auspex (“augur”), possibly via French.
adj
- Of good omen; indicating future success.e.g.“It was a boast of Napoleon, that the very weather owned the influence of his auspicious star—his triumphal entry, his procession, or his fête, were always marked by sunshine.” — 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 130:
- Conducive to success.e.g.“This is an auspicious day.”
- Marked by success; prosperous.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.