portentous
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɔː(ɹ)ˈtɛntəs/
ipa: /pɔrˈtɛn(t)əs/
Forms: form: more portentous
form: most portentous
Etymology: Of multiple origins:
* Borrowed from Latin portentōsus, from portentus (“predicted”) + -ōsus. Compare earlier portentuous (via Middle English from Latin portentuōsus). By surface analysis, portent + -ous.
* Borrowed from French portentueux
Senses: examples: text: Well may it sort [be fitting] that this portentous figure comes armed through our watch, so like the King that was and is the question of these wars.
ref: c. 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 1, scene 1; republished as Hamlet, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1992, →ISBN, page 4:
text: It is no longer in my possession, but my memory holds almost every word of its portentous message; and again I affirm my confidence in the sanity of the man who wrote it.
ref: 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 2, in The Whisperer in Darkness:
text: The chaplain's first mention of the name Yossarian! had tolled deep in his memory like a portentous gong.
ref: 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “Chief White Halfoat”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page page:
text: If the siege of Boston seemed to end in anticlimax, with the sudden retreat of British military forces, the siege of New York City seen from the inside, from under siege, seemed infinitely more portentous: “The Day is Come that in all Probility on which Depends the Salvation of this Countery.”
ref: 2009, Konstantin Dierks, “Revolution and War”, in In My Power: Letter Writing and Communications in Early America, Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 225:
text: The main problem with To Believe, however, is that by combining two of their previous styles, the Cinematic Orchestra have landed on a sound that has become ubiquitous in the years they’ve been away – portentous, restrained and impeccably tasteful electronica.
ref: 2019 March 15, Rachel Aroesti, “The Cinematic Orchestra: To Believe review – soundscape originators' accomplished return”, in The Guardian:
synonyms: word: ominous
word: momentous
word: big
word: central
word: consequential
word: critical
word: crucial
word: epochful
word: essential
word: extraordinary
word: fateful
word: fatefraught
word: fatesome
word: heavy
word: pivotal
word: high on the totem pole
word: historic
word: innegligible
word: key
word: life-or-death
word: meaningful
word: necessary
word: noted
word: noticeable
word: observable
word: outstanding
word: paramount
word: pertinent
word: relevant
word: remarkable
word: salient
word: significant
word: unignorable
word: valuable
word: vital
word: weighty
glosses: Of momentous or ominous significance.
synonyms: word: foreshadowing
word: predictive
word: premonitory
word: prognosticatory
word: augurous
word: baleful
word: bodeful
word: boding
word: dire
word: disastrous
word: fatal
word: foreboding
word: ill-boding
word: ill-fated
word: ill-omened
word: ill-starred
word: inauspicate
word: inauspicious
word: nefastous
word: omenic
word: ominous
word: brooding
word: portentous
word: presageful
word: presagious
word: prodigious
word: sinister
word: star-crossed
word: sullen
glosses: Ominously prophetic.
synonyms: vain
glosses: Puffed up with vanity.
Synonyms: fateful
prophetic
significant
Derived terms: portentously
portentousness
unportentous
Related terms: portent
augury
foreboding
ominous
pretentious