portentous

por·ten·tous

adjective \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 Synonym Discussion at ominous

Other Occult Terms

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

Rhymes with PORTENTOUS

apprentice, momentous