premonition
/ˌprɛməˈnɪʃ(ə)n
/ /ˌpriːməˈnɪʃ(ə)n/noun
A strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant: he had a premonition of imminent disaster...
- I had strong premonitions of doom, the unmistakable feeling I was walking into a trap.
- The prince searches for her through the white night of St. Petersburg, his mind full of confusion, premonitions and anxiety, as on the eve of an attack.
- A chill, in accordance with all the cliches about premonitions and fears, went up my spine. I got up on the counter.
Derivatives
premonitory
/ adjective ...- For instance, I'm not looking ahead to my 30th birthday with any sort of premonitory dread.
- At home, one reaction has been a revival of premonitory scenarios of gloom.
- All the same, there are two passages in the book that I found eerily premonitory of what she would do ten years later.
premonitor
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'advance warning'): from French prémonition, from late Latin praemonitio(n-), from Latin praemonere, from prae 'before' + monere 'warn'.