Ominous vs Scary - What's the difference?
ominous | scary |
Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant.
Specifically, giving indication of a coming ill; being an evil omen; threatening; portentous; inauspicious.
* California poll support for Jerry Brown's tax increases has ominous implications for U.S. taxpayers too Los Angeles Times Headline April 25, 2011
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=April 29
, author=Nathan Rabin
, title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)
Causing or able to cause fright
(US, colloquial, dated) Subject to sudden alarm; nervous, jumpy.
* 1916 , Texas Department of Agriculture, Bulletin (issues 47-57), page 150:
Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.
As adjectives the difference between ominous and scary
is that ominous is of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant while scary is causing or able to cause fright.As a noun scary is
barren land having only a thin coat of grass.ominous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, page= , passage=The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogurt!) is amusing in itself, as is the idea that frogurt could be cursed, but it’s really the Shopkeeper’s quicksilver shift from ominous doomsaying to chipper salesmanship that sells the sequence.}}
Usage notes
* Formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshadowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread. * Nouns to which "ominous" is often applied: sign, silence, warning, cloud, note, sound, shadow, threat, music, tone, implication, message, presence, development, voice, portent, turn, sky, figure, dream, event, trend, change, day, beginning, growl, cry, signal, pattern.Synonyms
* portentous * threateningDerived terms
* ominously * ominousnessExternal links
* *scary
English
Etymology 1
Adjective
(er)- The tiger's jaws were scary.
- She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.
- (Whittier)
- And let us say to these interests that, until the Buy-It-Made-In-Texas movement co-operates with the farmers, we are going to be a little scary of the snare.