omen

See also: Omen, òmen, and ōmen

English

Etymology

From Latin ōmen (“foreboding, omen”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈəʊmən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈoʊmən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊmən

Noun

omen (plural omens)

English Wikipedia has an article on:

omen

Wikipedia

1. 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.

   The ghost's appearance was an ill omen.

   A rise in imports might be an omen of economic recovery.

   The egg has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen.

   • 1856, Gustave Flaubert, chapter 10, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary, Part 3:

     Day broke. He saw three black hens asleep in a tree. He shuddered, horrified at this omen. Then he promised the Holy Virgin three chasubles for the church, and that he would go barefooted from the cemetery at Bertaux to the chapel of Vassonville.

2. A thing of prophetic significance.

   A sign of ill omen.

Synonyms

• augury, auspice, forecast, foreshadowing, foretoken, forewarning, harbinger, herald, hint, indication, oracle, portent, prediction, presage, prophecy, sign, signal, token, warning; danger sign, straw in the wind, (hand) writing on the wall; see also Thesaurus:omen

Derived terms

• absit omen
• bird of ill omen
• omenic
• omenless

Related terms

• ominous
• abomination

Collocations

Collocations

• Adjectives often applied to "omen": good, ill, bad, auspicious, evil, favorable, happy, lucky.

Translations

something which portends or is perceived to portend a good or evil event or circumstance in the future; an augury or foreboding

Arabic: فَأل (ar), نَذِيْر (naḏiyr), طالِع (ṭāliʕ) Bulgarian: поличба (bg) f (poličba), знамение (bg) n (znamenie) Catalan: presagi (ca) m, averany (ca) m, auguri (ca) m, auspici (ca) m Cherokee: (bad omen) ᎤᏓᎴᎯ (udalehi) Chinese: Mandarin: 預兆 / 预兆 (zh) (yùzhào) Czech: znamení (cs) n Dutch: voorteken (nl) n, omen (nl) n, voorbode (nl) m Esperanto: aŭguro, antaŭsigno, omeno Finnish: enne (fi) French: présage (fr) m Galician: agoiro (gl) m, sinal (gl) m German: Omen (de) n Greek: οιωνός (el) m (oionós), σημάδι (el) n (simádi), προμήνυμα (el) n (promínyma) Ancient: οἰωνός m (oiōnós), κληδών f (klēdṓn) Ingrian: sanoma Irish: mana (ga) m, tuar (ga) m, droch-tuar m (unlucky), teir f (evil omen) Italian: presagio (it) m, segno (it) m, auspicio (it) m, augurio (it) m, premonizione (it) f, presentimento (it) m Lao: please add this translation if you can Latin: omen n, praenuntia f Maori: takiari, tūpō (refers to bad omen), kōara (refers to bad omen), inati (usually heralds misfortune) Marathi: शकुन m (śakun) Middle Persian: [Book Pahlavi needed] (ytk /⁠ǰadag⁠/), [Book Pahlavi needed] (yhyšn' /⁠ǰahišn⁠/), [Book Pahlavi needed] (mwlwʾk' /⁠murwāg⁠/) Norman: avèrti m Norwegian: omen n Old English: wyrd Ottoman Turkish: فال (fal) (good or bad); اوغور (uğur) (a favorable one) Persian: مروا (fa) (morvâ), فال (fa) (fâl), مرغوا (fa) (morġvâ) Plautdietsch: Bediedunk f Portuguese: augúrio (pt) m, agouro (pt) m, presságio (pt) m, vaticínio (pt) m Russian: зна́мение (ru) (známenije), предзнаменова́ние (ru) n (predznamenovánije) Spanish: presagio (es) m Swedish: omen (sv) n, järtecken (sv) Tagalog: pangitain Vietnamese: điềm (vi)

prophetic significance

Bulgarian: предсказание (bg) n (predskazanie) Esperanto: antaŭsigno Finnish: enne (fi) French: présage (fr) m German: Omen (de) n Greek: οιωνός (el) m (oionós) Italian: presagio (it) m, augurio (it) m, prenunzio m, indizio (it) m, premonizione (it) f, profezia (it) f Portuguese: presságio (pt) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Serbo-Croatian: znamenje (sh) n, predznak (sh) m, predskazanje (sh) n, kob (sh) m

Verb

omen (third-person singular simple present omens, present participle omening, simple past and past participle omened)

1. (transitive) To be an omen of.
2. (intransitive) To divine or predict from omens.

Synonyms

• prognosticate, betoken, forecast, foretell, portend, foreshadow, bode, augur, prefigure, predict, auspicate, presage

See also

• augury
• foreboding
• portend
• portent
• stars are aligned

Further reading

• “omen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “omen”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Nemo, meno-, mone, Meno, nemo, Nome, Moen, nome, meon, Meon, Mone, Emon, NEMO