herald

1. 1.

   (formal) a person who announces important news

   “the chieftain had a herald who announced his arrival with a trumpet”

   Synonymstrumpeter

   Broadermessenger

   formality

2. 2.

   something that precedes and indicates the approach of something or someone

   Synonymsharbingerforerunnerpredecessorprecursor

   Broaderindication

Other forms of herald

plural

heralds·

past tense

heralded·

present participle

heralding·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about herald

What does herald mean?

herald means "foreshadow or presage". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in herald?

herald has 2 syllables: her-ald. The stress falls on "her". In IPA it is /ˈhɛɹəld/.

What is another word for herald?

Close synonyms include announce, annunciate, harbinger, foretell, acclaim. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is herald a common word?

herald is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.