baleful

Meaning

1. Portending evil; ominous.
2. (obsolete) Miserable, wretched, distressed, suffering.
3. (obsolete) Deadly, mortal.

Synonyms

baneful

sinister

ominous

pernicious

threatening

fatal

menacing

harmful

evil

minacious

minatory

forbidding

disastrous

ruinous

deadly

malign

lowering

inauspicious

injurious

malefic

malicious

malignant

mournful

murderous

noxious

painful

pestiferous

pestilent

portentous

regrettable

sad

☹️

sorrowful

sorry

spiteful

sullen

toxic

unlucky

wicked

wolfish

presageful

aching

presagious

afflictive

angry

😠

annihilating

cataclysmic

dark

deleterious

detrimental

direful

distressing

doleful

foreboding

grievous

ill-omened

imminent

impendent

impending

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈbeɪl.fəl/

Etymology

From Middle English baleful, balful, baluful, from Old English bealuful, which was equivalent to bealu + -ful. By surface analysis, bale (“evil, woe”) + -ful. See bale for further etymology.