death-knell
Sound announcing doom
A death-knell is the tolling of a bell to announce someone's death, traditionally rung slowly and solemnly.
The term is now used almost entirely in its figurative sense: something that signals the end or destruction of a thing.
The scandal sounded the death-knell for his political career.
Critics called the new regulations a death-knell for small businesses.
The spelling death knell, without the hyphen, is equally common.
Slow, solemn bell-ringing
- bellsStruck metal sound-makers
- dirgeMournful commemorative music
- requiemMass for the deceased
- funeral marchMusic accompanying a coffin
mourning · last rites · pallbearer · cortège · wake · memorial · obituary · eulogy
Prophetic indicator
- portentSign of future calamity
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- forewarningNotice of future trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
alarm · signal · herald · tocsin · clarion call · red flag · writing on the wall · bad sign
Total civilizational collapse
- catastropheDevastating, large-scale misfortune
- ruinationState of complete destruction
- annihilationUtter, complete destruction
- destructionAct of completely ruining
extinction · demise · collapse · downfall · perdition · doomsday · cataclysm · oblivion
Concluding part of performance
- conclusionEnd or deduction
- cessationA full stopping
- closureSense of emotional resolution
- discontinuationFormal ending of something
expiration · termination · sunset · swansong · curtain call · last hurrah · epilogue · capstone
tolling
Slow, solemn bell-ringing
funeral march · mourning · last rites · pallbearer · cortège · wake · memorial · obituary · eulogy · epitaph
omen
Prophetic indicator
- portentSign of future calamity
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- forewarningNotice of future trouble
premonition · alarm · signal · herald · tocsin · clarion call · red flag · writing on the wall · bad sign · ill omen
apocalypse
Total civilizational collapse
- catastropheDevastating, large-scale misfortune
- ruinationState of complete destruction
- annihilationUtter, complete destruction
destruction · extinction · demise · collapse · downfall · perdition · doomsday · cataclysm · oblivion · inevitability
finale
Concluding part of performance
- conclusionEnd or deduction
- cessationA full stopping
- closureSense of emotional resolution
discontinuation · expiration · termination · sunset · swansong · curtain call · last hurrah · epilogue · capstone · wind-down
deterioration
Process of declining quality
- decayGradual organic breakdown
- degenerationProgressive loss of function
- disintegrationProcess of breaking apart
collapse · downturn · slump · recession · waning · ebbing · fading · atrophy · erosion · unraveling
death-knellrebirth
Spiritual or physical regeneration
birth · beginning · genesis · dawn · new beginning
death-knelllifeline
Essential connection to safety
beacon of hope · ray of hope · salvation · reprieve · saving grace
death-knellfanfare
Ceremonial brass announcement
celebration · jubilee · triumph · coronation · wedding bells
death, knell, deaths, knells, knelled, knelling, dead, deadly, deadliness