forebode means prognostication; presage. It carries an Arena rating of 1844, earned across 77 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, forebode ranks #877 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,419 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,643 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,868 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
forebode is pronounced /fɔːˈbəʊd/.
Why “forebode” is a great word
FOREBODE — [Verb/Noun] To predict or serve as an omen of, especially something evil or unfortunate; also, the prediction or portent itself. From Middle English foreboden, from Old English forebodian, equivalent to the prefix fore- ("before, in advance") + bode ("to announce, foretell"). Unlike "foreshadow" (which neutrally hints at a future event) or "augur" (which can portend either fortune or failure), to forebode is to announce with a chill, a prophecy permanently stained by the expectation of calamity. It is the sudden silence of birds at noon, the inexplicable cold on a sunlit path, the phone ringing at three in the morning—a somber grammar of dread written in the present tense, teaching us that anticipation is the soul's barometer, sensing the plummet long before the storm breaks.
Etymology
From Middle English foreboden, from Old English forebodian, equivalent to fore- + bode.
noun
- prognostication; presage
verb
- To predict a future event; to hint at something that will happen (especially as a literary device).e.g.“There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart.” — 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
- To be prescient of (some ill or misfortune); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly.e.g.“Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Caesar's death.” — 1741, Conyers Middleton, Life of Cicero:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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