onheilspellende

Onheilspellende is a Dutch adjective meaning ominous, foreboding, or portending misfortune. It is used to describe signs, atmospheres, or statements that suggest impending danger or disaster. The word carries a sense of threat without stating it outright, and it is common in both literary and journalistic contexts as well as everyday speech when a situation feels threatening or unsettling.

Etymology and form: the term is a compound based on onheil, an old Dutch noun meaning calamity or misfortune, paired with a suffix that forms adjectives indicating causing or indicating (often rendered as a present-participle-like element in Dutch compounds). The resulting adjective can take inflection to agree with the noun it modifies, yielding forms such as onheilspellende (before a common-gender singular noun, plural nouns, or after de/het in certain contexts) and onheilspellend (the base, neuter singular form). This flexibility allows the word to appear in a variety of syntactic positions while preserving the core sense of forewarning or threat.

Usage and nuance: onheilspellend is typically used for signals that feel threatening or dangerous, not merely unpleasant. It can describe weather, omens, or communications, as well as artistic moods in literature and film. In many contexts it conveys a stronger emotional charge than more neutral terms like dreigend or zorgelijk.

Related terms: synonyms include dreigend, angstwekkend, en bedreigend; antonyms include geruststellend and gerust. The English equivalent is ominous.

Examples: onheilspellende wolken boven de horizon; een onheilspellende stilte viel over het kamp; de onheilspellende berichtgeving riep zorgen op bij de bevolking.