OMINOUS

adj. 1 foreboding, threatening, fateful, dark, black, gloomy, lowering or louring, menacing, sinister; unpropitious, unfavourable, ill-omened, ill-starred, unpromising, star-crossed, inauspicious With ominous solemnity, the judge placed a black cloth square on his head before passing the death sentence 2 minatory, warning, admonitory, cautionary The whispering had taken on ominous overtones 3 portentous, prophetic, oracular, vaticinal, predictive, prognostic, augural, mantic, sibyllic, meaningful, premonitory, foreshadowing, foretelling, foretokening, indicative Virtually everything was regarded as ominous in ancient times