harbinger

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
15
Words With Friends
17
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈhɑːbɪndʒə/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈhɑːbɪndʒə/ · /ˈhɑɹ.bɪn.d͡ʒəɹ/(US)

Definition of harbinger

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something.
    “harbinger of danger; harbinger of doom; harbinger of spring”
    “Make all our Trumpets ſpeak, giue thẽ all breath / Thoſe clamorous Harbingers of Blood, & Death”
    “I knew by these harbingers who were coming.”
    “It’s to realize that Moon Frye, by cheerfully surveilling her own life, and those first Real Worlders, by agreeing to the constant presence of producers and cameras, were the harbingers of today’s culture, in which self-image is shaped in the expectation of a lens and personhood collates with brand identity.”
See all 3 definitions

noun

  1. A person or thing that foreshadows or foretells the coming of someone or something.
    “harbinger of danger; harbinger of doom; harbinger of spring”
    “Make all our Trumpets ſpeak, giue thẽ all breath / Thoſe clamorous Harbingers of Blood, & Death”
    “I knew by these harbingers who were coming.”
    “It’s to realize that Moon Frye, by cheerfully surveilling her own life, and those first Real Worlders, by agreeing to the constant presence of producers and cameras, were the harbingers of today’s culture, in which self-image is shaped in the expectation of a lens and personhood collates with brand identity.”
  2. (obsolete)One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when travelling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
    “outward decency […] is the Harbinger to provide the lodging for inward holinesse”

verb

  1. (transitive)To announce or precede; to be a harbinger of.
    “It was harbingered also by the terrible comet of January, which appeared in a cadent and obscure house, denoting sickness and death; […]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Originally, a person sent in advance to arrange lodgings. From Middle English herberjour, herbergeour, from Old French herbergeor (French hébergeur), from herbergier (“to set up camp; to shelter; to take…

See full etymology

Originally, a person sent in advance to arrange lodgings. From Middle English herberjour, herbergeour, from Old French herbergeor (French hébergeur), from herbergier (“to set up camp; to shelter; to take shelter”) + -or (suffix forming agent nouns), from Old High German heribergan, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *harjabergu (“army camp, shelter”). Compare German Herberge, Italian albergo, Dutch herberg, English harbor. More at here, borrow.

Words you can make from harbinger

200+ playable · top: HANGRIER (12 pts)

Best play hangrier 12 points

7-letter words

11 words

6-letter words

26 words

5-letter words

35 words

4-letter words

64 words

3-letter words

60 words

2-letter words

3 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to harbinger to make another valid word.

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