death knell vs presage

death knell and presage both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
death knell	Yes	No	No	No
presage	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, presage is a hypernym of death knell; that is, presage is a word with a broader meaning than death knell:

Other hypernyms of death knell include omen, portent, prodigy, prognostic, prognostication.

death knell (noun)	presage (noun)
a bell rung to announce a death	a sign of something about to happen
an omen of death or destruction	a foreboding about what is about to happen

death knell (verb)	presage (verb)
	indicate, as with a sign or an omen