Synonyms for threatening
- adjective
Most common
menacing ominous intimidating forbidding lowering heavy imminent
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Menacing
menacing, ominous, intimidating, forbidding, baleful, sinister, alarming, foreboding, portentous, unpromising, minatory, minacious dated
Other
dark, comminatory, threatensome, threatful rare
Definitions
- adj. 1
Presenting a threat, posing a likely risk of harm.
Never turn your back to someone who is displaying threatening behavior.
- adj. 2
Making threats, making statements about a willingness to cause harm.
Related words
- Word family
- threateningly threateningness
- Is a kind of
- frightening
Choose the right word
Imminent is more immediate, impending more remote, threatening more contingent.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- intimidating Tom finds Mary's mother to be quite intimidating.
- ominous The sky looks ominous. I wonder if it will rain.
- menacing The tide rushed into the estuary at a menacing pace.
- forbidding There is a very strict rule forbidding smoking in bed.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| threatening | rising | |
| intimidating | rising | |
| ominous | rising | |
| menacing | rising | |
| forbidding | steady | |
| comminatory | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- near1, dark1
- 5 letters
- heavy2
- 6 letters
- sullen2
- 7 letters
- ominous3, baleful2
- 8 letters
- lowering3, imminent3, sinister3, alarming3, menacing3, minatory
- 9 letters
- impending3, minacious, impendent, threatful
- 10 letters
- forbidding3, foreboding3, portentous3
- 11 letters
- unpromising4, comminatory
- 12 letters
- intimidating5, threatensome
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (heavy2 = 2 syllables).