Meaning & use
portentous
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Acting as a sign that something important, usually bad, is coming.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: portentous clouds; the silence felt portentous.
Patterns
- portentous of something
Dark clouds rolled in, portentous of a storm.
The strange silence before the meeting felt portentous.
A portentous cracking sound came from the ice.
adjectivecomparabledisapproving
Overly solemn and self-important, as if everything said were weighty.
Grammar: Describes manner or style of speaking or writing; mildly critical.
The narrator's portentous voice made the cartoon sound like a funeral.
He gave a portentous speech about a routine software update.
Her portentous tone made everyone smile.
Word forms
| comparative | more portentous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most portentous |
Common combinations
- portentous silence
- A portentous silence filled the room.
- portentous sign
- The comet was seen as a portentous sign.
- portentous tone
- He spoke in a portentous tone.
- portentous words
- Her portentous words made the crowd uneasy.
- portentous event
- It was a portentous event for the kingdom.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ominous
- Ominous means clearly threatening, while portentous can mean merely significant or pompous.
- foreboding
- Foreboding is a noun for the feeling, or an adjective for something that creates it.
- pompous
- Pompous covers only the self-important sense, not the omen sense.
- momentous
- Momentous means very important but has no sense of warning.
Opposites
Word family
- portent noun
- a sign of something about to happen
- portentously adverb
- in an ominous or pompous way
- portentousness noun
- the quality of being portentous
Commonly confused: portentous or potent? portentous or pretentious?
portentous vs potent
Potent means powerful, with no suggestion of an omen.
portentous vs pretentious
Pretentious means trying to seem more important or clever than you are; portentous is gloomily weighty.
Practice
The sky turned a strange green, a ___ sign of the hurricane to come.
Choose one answer.
Portentous means seeming to warn of something big and bad. Trivial, cheerful and routine do not fit a warning sign.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “portentous”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.