Word.ws English Dictionary

boding

Syllables: bod·ing/ˈbəʊdɪŋ/US/ˈboʊdɪŋ/

boding adjective: foreboding, ominous, portending. Also the gerund of bode.

Adjective

boding (comparative more boding, superlative most boding)

  1. foreboding, ominous, portending.
    • [E]very sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination: the moan of the whip-poor-will from the hill side; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; […]1820 March 5, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number VI, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle...

Also used as

boding is also the gerund of bode.

boding is also the present participle and gerund of bode.

Synonyms of boding

15 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of boding

Forms of boding

Adjective
comparativemore boding
superlativemost boding
Noun
pluralbodings

Origin of boding

From bode + -ing.

Words formed from boding

Questions about boding

What does boding mean?
Boding means foreboding, ominous, portending.
What part of speech is boding?
Boding is an adjective.
How do you pronounce boding?
Boding is pronounced /ˈbəʊdɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near boding in the dictionary

  1. bodily processes
  2. Bodilys
  3. Bodin
  4. Bodine
  5. Bodines
  6. boding
  7. bodingly
  8. bodings
  9. Bodins
  10. Bodio
  11. Bodis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boding (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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