How to Use ominous in a Sentence

ominous

adjective
  • He spoke in ominous tones.
  • What an ominous turn of phrase.
    — Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 20 May 2026
  • But things soon took an ominous turn.
    — Allison Gordon, CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2025
  • The email to his lawyer ends on an ominous note.
    — Matthew Bremner, Rolling Stone, 11 Feb. 2026
  • Cut to black, episode over, very ominous.
    — Jordan Hoffman, Entertainment Weekly, 23 Feb. 2026
  • But his right wrist was wrapped, and that was an ominous sign.
    — Dallas News, 19 Feb. 2023
  • While these clouds may look ominous, these clouds have been low to the ground.
    — CNN, 1 June 2018
  • But its opener strikes a more ominous note.
    — Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 24 Jan. 2026
  • Nothing sad or ominous to share this week.
    — Zach Dean Outkick, FOXNews.com, 15 June 2026
  • But after a week of tragedy, the tagline has an ominous edge.
    — Washington Post, 1 July 2021
  • But for now, his parting words were ominous.
    — Rob Picheta, CNN Money, 7 Feb. 2026
  • As the cave shakes and thunders, the scene gets more ominous.
    — Megan Dubois, Southern Living, 4 May 2026
  • But when caught on video, the masks strike many people as ominous.
    — Martin Kaste, NPR, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Jon’s call to his mother was ominous.
    — Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Uma said, her ominous laugh ending the movie.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Feb. 2026
  • That seems ominous for a team that is 3-9 on the road, right?
    — Dallas News, 16 Dec. 2022
  • Jump scares and ominous music are used just as much for laughs as frights here.
    — Lincoln Michel, GQ, 21 Oct. 2017
  • The ominous signs keep piling up.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2025
  • The picture that's emerged is ominous.
    — Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR, 10 Oct. 2025
  • That sort of rhetoric may sound alarmist, but there are some ominous clouds on the horizon.
    — Ethan Sacks, NBC News, 1 Aug. 2021
  • Gone are the days of the market’s rise being an ominous sign.
    — Gillian B. White, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2017
  • There is an ominous feeling that this group is just running in place.
    — Jonas Siegel, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2025
  • The clothes are shucked, the ominous music kicks in, and that’s that, and that, and that.
    — Chris Vognar, Rolling Stone, 13 Apr. 2023
  • In some ways, that second sentence may be more ominous than the first.
    — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 16 Jan. 2022
  • Many took photos of the ominous scene and guessed the smoke's nature.
    — Kennedy Sessions, Chron, 5 May 2023
  • The prospect of a new year on the horizon seems both bright and somewhat ominous.
    — Justin Chang, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 June 2019
  • This year’s failures set an ominous precedent for the year ahead.
    — Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 30 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
  • This week the head of the army issued ominous warnings about the need for more cash.
    — The Economist, 25 Jan. 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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