premonition

• præmonition (archaic)

First use appears c. 1533. From Anglo-Norman premunition, from Ecclesiastical Latin praemonitiōnem (“a forewarning”), form of praemonitiō, from Latin praemonitus, past participle of praemoneō, from prae (“before”) (English pre-) + moneō (“to warn”) (from which English monitor).^[1] Compare Germanic forewarning.

• IPA^(key): /ˌpriːməˈnɪʃən/, /ˌprɛ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• enPR: prĕm'ə-, prē'mə-nĭshʹən
• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

premonition (plural premonitions)

1. A clairvoyant or clairaudient experience, such as a dream, which resonates with some event in the future.

   Synonym: vision

2. A strong intuition that something is about to happen (usually something negative, but not exclusively).

   Synonyms: bad feeling, foreboding, gut feeling, hunch, (informal) second sight

   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 17:

     The sinister face of Dr. Bauerstein recurred to me unpleasantly. A vague suspicion of everyone and everything filled my mind. Just for a moment I had a premonition of approaching evil.