The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ominous \Om"i*nous\, a. [L. ominosus, fr. omen. See Omen.] Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread.
He had a good ominous name to have made a peace.
--Bacon.
In the heathen worship of God, a sacrifice without a
heart was accounted ominous.
--South.
[1913 Webster] -- Om"i*nous*ly, adv. -- Om"i*nous*ness,
n.
Wiktionary
n. The quality of being ominous.
Usage examples of "ominousness".
To Geros there was an ominousness to the silence, broken only by the sounds he and his party made—jingle and clank of metal, creak of leather, hoof on hard, pebbly ground.
To Geros there was an ominousness to the silence, broken only by the sounds he and his party madejingle and clank of metal, creak of leather, hoof on hard, pebbly ground.
John Sunlight came walking with slow, cold ominousness, like a devil in black, or a Frankenstein, or a Dracula.
For some ill-disclosed reason he felt a deep, abiding ominousness in the query.