Synonyms for threatening
ˈθrɛt n ɪŋthreat·en·ing

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. threatening

   Imminent, from the Latin, with the sense of projecting over, signifies liable to happen at once, as some calamity, dangerous and close at hand. Impending, also from the Latin, with the sense of hanging over, is closely akin to imminent, but somewhat less emphatic. Imminent is more immediate, impending more remote, threatening more contingent. An impending evil is almost sure to happen at some uncertain time, perhaps very near; an imminent peril is one liable to befall very speedily; a threatening peril may be near or remote, but always with hope that it may be averted.

   Synonyms:
   imminent, impending

   Antonyms:
   chimerical, contingent, doubtful, improbable, problematical, unexpected, unlikely

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. threatening

   Synonyms:
   menacing, intimidating, minatory, comminatory, minacious, foreboding, unpromising, imminent, impending

   Antonyms:
   encouraging, promising, reassuring, enticing, passed, overpast, withdrawn

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:3.0 / 2 votes

1. baleful, forbidding, menacing, minacious, minatory, ominous, sinister, threateningadjective

   threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments

   "a baleful look"; "forbidding thunderclouds"; "his tone became menacing"; "ominous rumblings of discontent"; "sinister storm clouds"; "a sinister smile"; "his threatening behavior"; "ugly black clouds"; "the situation became ugly"

   Synonyms:
   grim, inauspicious, sullen, minacious, baneful, lowering, black, baleful, dark, sinister, heavy, minatory, dour, ominous, menacing, ill, forbidding

   Antonyms:
   unalarming, clear

2. heavy, lowering, sullen, threateningadjective

   darkened by clouds

   "a heavy sky"

   Synonyms:
   ominous, laboured, sullen, laborious, overweight, toilsome, intemperate, forbidding, with child(p), sound, dark, wakeless, dense, grueling, dour, heavy(p), grave, cloggy, heavy(a), large(p), baleful, clayey, enceinte, minatory, menacing, grievous, glowering, fleshy, sour, weighed down, hard, weighty, impenetrable, gruelling, expectant, lumbering, ponderous, backbreaking, sonorous, great(p), profound, operose, saturnine, heavy, arduous, big(a), labored, moody, morose, punishing, glum, gravid, big(p), minacious, lowering, leaden, sinister

   Antonyms:
   unalarming, clear

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. threateningadjective

   Synonyms:
   menacing, impending, impendent, imminent, minatory

2. threateningnoun

   Synonyms:
   commination, threat, denunciation, menace

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. threateningadjective

   Synonyms:
   imminent, ominous, impending, minatory, fulminating

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "threatening":

   threat, menacing, threatens, threaten, threatened, endangering, threat-related, threats, jeopardizing, jeopardising, menace

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How to use threatening in a sentence?

1. Nevada Democratic Party:

   It’s been vile, it’s been threatening messages, threatening my family, threatening my life, threatening my grandchild.

2. Charles Spencer:

   Genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum.

3. King Jr. Whitney:

   Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

4. Walter Lippmann:

   Successful ... politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only as they placate, appease, bribe, seduce, bamboozle or otherwise manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements in their constituencies.

5. Hashim Nzinga:

   If it is an open state to carry, we will exercise our Second Amendment rights because there are other groups threatening to be there that are threatening to do harm to us, if that state allows us to bear arms, the Panthers and the others who can legally bear arms will bear arms.