ominous tone
Sense of dread
An ominous tone is a manner of speaking or writing that suggests something bad is about to happen.
The phrase describes the quality of a voice, passage, or statement that carries threat or foreboding: The letter began in an ominous tone, He spoke in an ominous tone about what would happen if we refused.
Music and film scores achieve an ominous tone through minor keys, dissonance, or unsettling silences.
- forebodingFearful anticipation of harm
- menacingConveying threat or danger
- sinisterThreateningly suggestive of harm
- darkAbsence of light
- threateningExpressing intent to harm
grim · brooding · dark clouds gathering · eerie · dread · portentous · warning · shadow · doom · storm brewing · creeping · unsettling · haunting · bad feeling · bleak · somber · gathering storm · thunder
- thrillerssuspense, thriller, nail-biter, page-turner, cliffhanger
- suspense musiccrescendo, tremolo, dissonance, ostinato, minor key
- creepy feelingseeriness, spookiness, creepiness, dread, foreboding
- suspensesuspense, suspenseful, tension, nail-biter, nail-biting
- thriller elementstwists, suspense, tension, anticipation, cliffhanger