Dread is fear of something you know is coming. Foreboding is a feeling that something bad is coming, even when you cannot say what.
Both words are about fear that looks ahead, so children often use them as a matched pair. The difference is how much you know.
Dread has a clear target. You dread the dentist on Thursday, or the spelling test you have not revised for. You can name the thing, count the days until it arrives, and feel your stomach sink every time someone mentions it.
Foreboding is vaguer. Nothing has happened yet and there may be nothing to point at, just a sense that something is wrong: the playground is oddly quiet, the teacher's face is serious, and you have a feeling of foreboding before anyone has said a word. That is why writers use it to build atmosphere at the start of a chapter.
A strong fear of something that is going to happen.
Similar: fear, terror, worry
A strong feeling that something bad is about to happen.
Similar: dread, worry, fear
When a question asks how the writer builds tension, foreboding is often the key word: it tells you the character senses trouble without knowing its shape. A child who reads it as plain fear of a known event can miss what the writer is setting up.
Definitions and example sentences on this page are the ones a child sees inside Wordrealm, taken from our list of over 1,100 words. It is free to browse, with nothing to sign up for.
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test