Foreboding Meaning
/fɔˈrboʊdɪŋ/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA sense of evil to come.
nounAn evil omen.
Sentence Examples
Mary shrugged the sense of foreboding away.
Despite her foreboding, Mary entered the cellar.
With some foreboding, we entered the petrified forest.
CEFR Practice Quiz
As darkness fell, an unsettling sense of ____ filled the empty, silent house.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had a sense of ____ as she approached the dark and completely abandoned old house.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English forbodyng, vorboding, equivalent to fore- + bode + -ing. Compare German Vorbote (“harbinger, omen”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"To me there is something sad in his life, and sometimes I have a sort of foreboding about him. I don't know why, but I fancy he will have some great trouble—perhaps an unhappy end."
— 1876 November, Henry James, Jr., chapter XIII, in The American, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, […], published 5 May 1877, →OCLC, page 229:
"A sense of foreboding, the like of which he had never known before, hung heavily on him."
— 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 41:
"I feel a slight foreboding about going home this year."
— 1976 December 25, John Atteridg, “Going Home for the Holidays”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 18:
"Blood on the street / Foreboding god complex / She never knew she was next"
— 2018, “Blood on the Street”, performed by Soulfly:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
As darkness fell, an unsettling sense of ____ filled the empty, silent house.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She had a sense of ____ as she approached the dark and completely abandoned old house.