omen means something which portends or is perceived to portend either a good or evil event or circumstance in the future, or which causes a foreboding; a portent or augury. It carries an Arena rating of 1574, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, omen ranks #49 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #593 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,418 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #2,237 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
omen is pronounced /ˈəʊ̯mən/.
Why “omen” is a great word
A phenomenon or event perceived as a prophetic sign, portending either good or evil fortune. From Latin ōmen ("foreboding, augury"), of uncertain ultimate origin; first recorded in English use in the 1580s. Unlike "auspice," which implies a favorable sign from birds, or "harbinger," which denotes a forerunner announcing an approach, an omen is the sign itself, morally ambiguous and freighted with dread or hope. It is the sudden silence of birds before a storm, the mirror cracking across its silver heart, the cold finding of a spider upon your morning robe—cipher from a silent world, where the future has already arrived, scentless and certain, waiting only to be read.
Etymology
From Latin ōmen (“foreboding, omen”).
noun
- Something which portends or is perceived to portend either a good or evil event or circumstance in the future, or which causes a foreboding; a portent or augury.e.g.“The ghost's appearance was an ill omen.”
- A thing of prophetic significance.e.g.“A sign of ill omen.”
verb
- To be an omen of.
- To divine or predict from omens.
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.
- ominate 75% match — To be an omen for (something); to foreshow, to presage. vs omen →
- bodement 69% match — An omen; a prognostic. vs omen →
- abodance 68% match — An omen or portent. vs omen →
- omination 68% match — presage; omen. vs omen →
- bode 66% match — Of a thing: to be an indication, omen, or sign of (something); to portend. vs omen →
- foreboding 64% match — A sense of evil to come. vs omen →
- augur 64% match — A diviner who foretells events by the behaviour of birds or other animals, or by signs derived from celestial phenomena, or unusual occurrences. vs omen →
- portent 64% match — Something that portends an event about to occur, especially an unfortunate or evil event; an omen. vs omen →