augur

1 of 2

noun

au·gur ˈȯ-gər

Synonyms of augur next

: an official diviner of ancient Rome

: one held to foretell events by omens

augur

2 of 2

verb

augured; auguring; augurs

transitive verb

: to foretell especially from omens

: to give promise of : presage

This bad news augurs disaster for all of us.

intransitive verb

: to predict the future especially from omens

Did you know?

In ancient Rome, augurs were official diviners whose function it was to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. We doubt the Romans predicted that augur would eventuate into a verb meaning “presage or foretell,” but in retrospect, augur’s path must have been in the stars.

Example Sentences

Noun ancient Roman augurs who predicted the future by reading the flight of birds Verb The decision doesn't augur well. the extended interview augurs well for your acceptance into that law school

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

For much of the world, and especially in many countries in Asia, these hot months are a grim augur of things to come. —

Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 9 May 2023 Success for the both the Lamb of God and the Bear of Blow augur well for films not based on existing IP — even if both movies are technically (very technically) based on true events. —

Vulture, 26 Feb. 2023 Although the outcome of the election will be an important measure of popular support for both parties, it cannot necessarily be read as an augur for the next presidential and parliamentary races in 2024. —

Reuters, CNN, 25 Nov. 2022 The UK Met Office, which monitors the weather, suggests that the record heat was an augur of things to come, which means data centers need to prepare for a new normal. —

Wired, 3 Aug. 2022 ByteDance’s growth in emerging markets could be an augur of what’s to come. —

Chris Stokel-Walker, Wired, 22 Nov. 2021 The mission of the Dylanologist is to serve as codebreaker, or some augur of the divine. —

John Semley, The New Republic, 26 May 2021 Phuket’s largest mosque is in Bang Tao, and this year the first day of Ramadan coincided with the beginning of the Thai New Year festivities, an auspicious augur after a year of economic hardship. —

New York Times, 25 Apr. 2021

Verb

On the plus side, this augured fewer yahoos in powerboats to contend with as the Hudson narrowed, beyond Haverstraw. —

Ben McGrath, The New Yorker, 3 July 2023 Fifteen years ago, a new generation of young voters propelled Barack Obama to a decisive victory that augured a new era of Democratic dominance. —

Nate Cohn, New York Times, 1 June 2023 And their wedding only augured more good things to come. —

The Foretold Team, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2023 As geopolitical rivalry between the Western democracies and a Chinese-Russian coalition augurs the return of a two-bloc world, most of the rest of the globe is sitting on the sidelines, preferring nonalignment to ensnarement in a new era of East-West rivalry. —

Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan, Foreign Affairs, 13 Apr. 2023 The Rosalind Franklin rover will carry a drill that can augur two meters beneath the Martian surface, accessing a subterranean habitat for past and present life that is considerably less hostile than the surface. —

Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 5 Apr. 2023 Their presence augurs a new act in the nascent counteroffensive and perhaps the war. —

Noah Robertson, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 June 2023 With over half of the U.S. population fully vaccinated, and on the international front the vaccination rate is rising gradually, total procedure volume and hospital visits is on a rise and this should augur well for pharmaceutical companies, including Merck. —

Trefis Team, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2021 That doesn’t necessarily augur for a lot of fun, or anything close to the androgenic torpor of his and his band’s youth. —

A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 14 Apr. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'augur.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English augurre, augure, borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French augure, borrowed from Latin augur, perhaps going back to *aug-u-s "the increased, one who receives the signs of increase," noun derivative of an s-stem adjective *aug-u-s "increased, grown," derivative of a u-stem adjective *aug-u- with the same sense, derivative from the base of augeō, augēre "to increase, make greater, heighten" — more at eke entry 2

Note: Though a connection has long been sought between the noun augur and the verb augēre, as well as with the adjective augustus "solemn, venerable" (see august), the semantic and morphological details are elusive. The above etymology was proposed by Michael Weiss in "Observations of the Prehistory of Latin augur," Alessandria 5 (2011), Atti del Convegno Internazionale … in memoriam Helmut Rix, pp. 365-79. As a morphological point of comparison for the derivation of augur, Weiss points to Latin vetus, veteris "old, veteran," which, if derived from an original u-stem adjective *u̯etu-, could be plausibly linked to Lithuanian vẽtušas and Old Church Slavic vetŭxŭ, both meaning "old."

Verb

borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French augurer, borrowed from Latin augurāre, augurārī "to foretell by augury, take auspices, prophesy, predict," derivative of augur augur entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1593, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of augur was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century