How to Use ominous in a Sentence

ominous

adjective
  • He spoke in ominous tones.
  • The clothes are shucked, the ominous music kicks in, and that’s that, and that, and that.
    Chris Vognar, Rolling Stone, 13 Apr. 2023
  • That seems ominous for a team that is 3-9 on the road, right?
    Dallas News, 16 Dec. 2022
  • Now the moment had come, a moment that twinned the thrilling with the ominous.
    New York Times, 10 Jan. 2021
  • As the drivers sat in line in the pits, the clouds became more and more ominous.
    Elton Alexander, cleveland.com, 28 May 2017
  • But after a week of tragedy, the tagline has an ominous edge.
    Washington Post, 1 July 2021
  • While these clouds may look ominous, these clouds have been low to the ground.
    CNN, 1 June 2018
  • Many took photos of the ominous scene and guessed the smoke's nature.
    Kennedy Sessions, Chron, 5 May 2023
  • This week the head of the army issued ominous warnings about the need for more cash.
    The Economist, 25 Jan. 2018
  • But his right wrist was wrapped, and that was an ominous sign.
    Dallas News, 19 Feb. 2023
  • Gone are the days of the market’s rise being an ominous sign.
    Gillian B. White, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2017
  • The prospect of a new year on the horizon seems both bright and somewhat ominous.
    Justin Chang, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 June 2019
  • Two deaths might have been a fluke; three seemed ominous.
    Susan Orlean, The New Yorker, 29 June 2020
  • That sort of rhetoric may sound alarmist, but there are some ominous clouds on the horizon.
    Ethan Sacks, NBC News, 1 Aug. 2021
  • Maybe Jansen’s stuff returns, but the trend is ominous.
    Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 24 July 2019
  • The dark background giving way to the flash of light is almost ominous, in a way.
    David Pierce, The Verge, 27 Mar. 2024
  • More ominous, Tara seems to have taken a wound in the battle, on her arm.
    Steve Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • The sky in the photo had hints of familiar blue and gray, like ominous snow clouds.
    Nicholas Schmidle, The New Yorker, 8 May 2021
  • So that's, um, kind of the dark, ominous future people talk about.
    Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Aug. 2023
  • In some ways, that second sentence may be more ominous than the first.
    Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 16 Jan. 2022
  • Jump scares and ominous music are used just as much for laughs as frights here.
    Lincoln Michel, GQ, 21 Oct. 2017
  • Still, there was something ominous about the empty swaths of green seats.
    Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Mar. 2018
  • As all signs point in an ominous direction, there is one bit of good news in the short term.
    Jeff Berardelli, CBS News, 6 Aug. 2020
  • And the idea that insanity and birth go hand-in-hand is a bit ominous.
    Matthew Kitchen, Esquire, 26 Mar. 2013
  • Ominous clouds billowed over the canyon rim, prompting a hasty retreat to the ramp.
    Jordan Rodriguez, idahostatesman, 15 May 2017
  • And the second post with the most impressions is more ominous than straight-up scary.
    Margaret Lin, Curbed, 5 Oct. 2018
  • Lose, and tears fall as if from the swollen clouds that cause ominous lightning delays.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2023
  • His entrance into the race was an ominous reminder of the past.
    Haleh Esfandiari, The Atlantic, 18 May 2017
  • But the way this debate has been playing out is ominous for the future.
    Arkansas Online, 20 Dec. 2020
  • This kind of feels like the beginning of something new and ominous.
    Fox News, 28 Sep. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ominous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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