A premonition is a strong feeling that something is going to happen before it actually does, especially something bad or dangerous. It's like an unexplained sense of knowing without any logical reason.

You might wake up with a premonition that today will be different somehow, or feel an odd certainty that you should take a different route home. In stories, a character might have a premonition of danger just before something goes wrong. Someone might say, “I had a premonition this would happen,” after an event they somehow sensed was coming.

Premonitions feel different from regular worries or guesses. When you're anxious about a test, that's normal worry based on knowing you have a test coming up. A premonition feels more mysterious: a sudden, unexplained conviction about the future with no clear evidence to support it.

Scientists remain skeptical about whether premonitions represent actual glimpses of the future or just coincidences we remember because they feel spooky. Our brains are constantly making predictions based on tiny details we don't consciously notice, which might explain some premonitions. Whether they're real foreknowledge or just our minds picking up subtle signals, premonitions have fascinated people throughout history.