portentous

por·ten·tous

adj \pȯr-ˈten-təs\

Definition of PORTENTOUS

1

: of, relating to, or constituting a portent <suspense, portentous foreshadowing, hints of sinister and violent mysteries — Francine Prose>

2

: eliciting amazement or wonder : prodigious

3

a : being a grave or serious matter <portentous decisions> b : self-consciously solemn or important : pompous <portentous declamation unsalted by the least trace of humor — W. H. Pritchard> c : ponderously excessive <that discipline's overwrought, portentous phrases — R. M. Coles>

— por·ten·tous·ly adverb

— por·ten·tous·ness noun

Examples of PORTENTOUS

1. <an eerie and portentous stillness hung over the camp the night before the battle>
2. <in 1969 people regarded the first landing on the moon as a truly portentous event>

First Known Use of PORTENTOUS

15th century

Related to PORTENTOUS

Synonyms: baleful, dire, direful, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, ominous, sinister, threatening

Antonyms: unthreatening

Related Words: black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched; discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious; ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky; evil, malign, malignant

Near Antonyms: auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperous

see all synonyms and antonyms

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See Synonym Discussion at ominous

Other Occult Terms

augury, censor, invocation, lucidity, metempsychosis, mojo, numinous, preternatural, weird, wraith

Rhymes with PORTENTOUS

apprentice, momentous