death-knells
Mournful bell sounds
Death-knells are the tolling of bells to announce a death, traditionally rung slowly and solemnly.
The term almost always appears figuratively now, meaning signs or events that signal the end of something: The factory closure was the death-knell for the town's economy.
Usually hyphenated, sometimes two words.
The singular death-knell is more common.
Sign of future calamity
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- forebodingFearful anticipation of harm
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- auguryOmen interpretation practice
forewarning · presage · sign · foreshadowing · prophecy · prognostication · herald · precursor
Slow, solemn bell-ringing
- bellsStruck metal sound-makers
- chimeMelodic bell sound
- pealResonant ringing burst
- ringClosed curve shape
clang · toll · passing-bell · solemn · mournful · resonance · echo · reverberation
Cessation of existence
- downfallSudden loss of power
- destructionAct of completely ruining
- collapseSudden structural failure
- ruinComplete destruction or collapse
catastrophe · extinction · annihilation · obliteration · end · finality · terminal · irreversible
portent
Sign of future calamity
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- forebodingFearful anticipation of harm
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
augury · forewarning · presage · sign · foreshadowing · prophecy · prognostication · herald · precursor · indicator
tolling
Slow, solemn bell-ringing
ring · clang · toll · passing-bell · solemn · mournful · resonance · echo · reverberation · somber
demise
Cessation of existence
- downfallSudden loss of power
- destructionAct of completely ruining
- collapseSudden structural failure
ruin · catastrophe · extinction · annihilation · obliteration · end · finality · terminal · irreversible · inevitable
death-knellssigns of life
Evidence of living presence
green shoots · dawn chorus · new beginnings · revivals · rebirths
death, knell, deaths, knells, knelled, knelling, dead, deadly, deadliness