noun / verb

omen

OH-muhn/ˈəʊmən/

A sign believed to predict a future event, or to serve as such a sign.

The traveler takes the crossing black cat as an omen of coming misfortune.

A traveler reads a black cat crossing his departure path as a bad omen; a compact two-scene sequence connects his apprehensive reaction with later, unrelated travel misfortune.

Etymology

Latin omen referred to foreboding or augury: an occurrence interpreted as a sign of what would follow, whether good or bad. Its deeper origin is unknown.

In context

Libranima81:50

Rocinante began to neigh, and Dapple to sigh, which, by both knight and squire, was accepted as a good sign and a very happy omen

Don Quixote - Cervantes (Illustrated Audiobook) Part 3 of 4

More examples

He worries that the broken mirror is a bad omen.
The villagers look for omens in the flight of birds.
In the story, the owl's call omens disaster.

Forms

omen · omens · omened · omening

ominous adjective — Suggesting that something bad may happen.

Similar words

portent: Usually foretells something momentous or threatening rather than ordinary.
harbinger: An early indication of something approaching, not necessarily supernatural.