death knell
Sound announcing doom
A death knell is the tolling of a bell to announce someone's death.
Figuratively, it marks the end or impending doom of something: The factory closing was the death knell for the town, Critics called the ruling a death knell for privacy rights.
The figurative use is now more common than the literal.
Slow, solemn bell-ringing
- pealResonant ringing burst
- chimeMelodic bell sound
- clangLoud metallic sound
- funeral bellChime announcing someone's death
passing bell · belfry · steeple · tower · cathedral · church · ringing · clapper
Cessation of existence
- downfallSudden loss of power
- destructionAct of completely ruining
- ruinComplete destruction or collapse
- collapseSudden structural failure
extinction · end · finale · catastrophe · disaster · coup de grâce · terminus · expiration
Mournful commemorative music
- requiemMass for the deceased
- funeralService honoring the dead
- lamentationPassionate expression of grief
- elegyPoem lamenting the departed
eulogy · memorial · grief · sorrow · bereavement · obituary · wake · solemnity
One who foreshadows
- portentSign of future calamity
- forewarningNotice of future trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- forebodingFearful anticipation of harm
presage · augury · sign · signal · foreshadowing · warning · herald · indicator
tolling
Slow, solemn bell-ringing
funeral bell · passing bell · belfry · steeple · tower · cathedral · church · ringing · clapper · sonorous
demise
Cessation of existence
- downfallSudden loss of power
- destructionAct of completely ruining
- ruinComplete destruction or collapse
collapse · extinction · end · finale · catastrophe · disaster · coup de grâce · terminus · expiration · dissolution
dirge
Mournful commemorative music
- requiemMass for the deceased
- funeralService honoring the dead
- lamentationPassionate expression of grief
elegy · eulogy · memorial · grief · sorrow · bereavement · obituary · wake · solemnity · farewell
harbinger
One who foreshadows
- portentSign of future calamity
- forewarningNotice of future trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
foreboding · presage · augury · sign · signal · foreshadowing · warning · herald · indicator · precursor
- mortalitymortality, mortality rates, dying, demise, fatalities
- mourningfuneral, burial, grief, bereavement, wake
- death idiomskick the bucket, six feet under, deadbeat, bought the farm, nail in coffin
- death omensbanshee, Grim Reaper, harbinger, corpse candle, deathwatch beetle
- funeral musicdirge, requiem, funeral march, funeral hymns, mourning song
- funeral ritesfuneral, bury, burial, funeral mass, burial rites
death knellbirth announcement
Notice of newborn's arrival
green light · new dawn · genesis · new beginning · dawn
death knellcelebration
Festive event marking occasion
fanfare · jubilation · triumph · victory lap · wedding bells
death knelllifeline
Essential connection to safety
ray of hope · salvation · reprieve · saving grace · shot in the arm
death, deadly, fatal, deaths, deaden, deathly, deadpan, deceased, dead