augury

plural auguries

1. countableuncountableA divination based on the appearance and behaviour of animals.
2. broadlycountableuncountableAn omen or prediction; a foreboding; a prophecy.

   Fortunately many of the younger men are keen enough to make a success of their work, and this gives a better augury for the future.

   1950 August, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 549

   2 more examples

   In Wordsworth's first preludings there is but a dim foreboding of the creator of an era. From Southey's early poems, a safer augury might have been drawn.

   1850, James Russell Lowell, The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe/Volume 1/Edgar A. Poe

   No augury could be hopefuller. The Fates must indeed be hard, the Ordeal severe, the Destiny dark, that could destroy so bright a Spring!

   1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC

3. countableuncountableAn event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.

   Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity.

   1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 2, in Well Tackled!