Synonym Study

• Foreboding implies a portent or presentiment of something evil or harmful a foreboding anxiety
• Fateful may imply a fatal character or control by fate, but is now usually applied to that which is of momentous or decisive significance a fateful decision
• Portentous may imply a foreshadowing, esp. of evil, but is now more often used of that which arouses awe or amazement because of its prodigious or marvelous character a portentous event
• Ominous implies a threatening character but does not necessarily connote a disastrous outcome the request was met by an ominous silence