Sinister
Sinister adjective - Being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come.
Usage example: the movie relies too much on sinister background music to create the suspense that the plot sorely lacks
Threatening
Threatening adjective - Being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come.
Usage example: a threatening silence followed the loud thump in the adjoining motel room
Sinister is a synonym for threatening in ominous topic. You can use "Sinister" instead an adjective "Threatening", if it concerns topics such as menacing. popular alternative
Mutual synonyms
Related pairs
- foreboding and sinister
- foreboding and threatening
- forbidding and sinister
- forbidding and threatening
- baleful and sinister
- baleful and threatening
- inauspicious and sinister
- inauspicious and threatening
- evil and sinister
- evil and threatening
- bad and sinister
- bad and threatening
- black and sinister
- black and threatening
Both words in one sentence
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While he is never actually shown to be even remotely sinister or threatening, one can only assume that he was in league with Bates and knew about the murders.
Source: Film / Demons Never Die -
Administrator's plans don't sound all that threatening or sinister, although he seems to sell them as such.
Source: Web Video / Echo Chamber - Grimshaw in The Movie of the Book due to Hartnell being more well known as the Doctor, and recommends Patrick Troughton instead, because Troughton comes off as a more sinister and threatening actor.
Source: Literature / Back in the USSA
Cite this Source
Threatening and Sinister. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 31, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/sinister/threatening
Sinister & Threatening. N.p., 2016. Web. 31 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/sinister/threatening>.
Threatening or Sinister. 2016. Accessed July 31, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/sinister/threatening.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "sinister" and "threatening" have occurred on timeline