premonitory - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

premonitory (not comparable)

  • Serving as a warning or premonition.
    • ✤ […] the captain was plainly too much for the branch, which was drooping toward the water, and emitting sounds premonitory of a smash.1
    • ✤ Many conditions formerly thought to be purely functional are now known as premonitory evidences of organic disease, and the prognosis must be guarded accordingly.2

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praemonitōrius.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA: /pɹəˈmɑnɪˌtɔɹi/
  • (UK) IPA: /pɹɪˈmɒnɪtəɹi/, /pɹɪˈmɒnɪtɹi/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Printed 2026-07-27.

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Footnotes

  1. 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard: ↩

  2. 1928 December 15, Frank J. Hirschboeck, “Treatment of Functional Heart Disease”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association ‎, volume 91, number 24, →DOI, page 1856: ↩