as in predicted
formal + literary
to be a sign or warning that something usually bad or unpleasant is going to happen
The distant thunder portended a storm. If you're superstitious, a black cat portends trouble.
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Recent Examples of portended
Martin County’s anti-development history portended a quick and certain rejection by the county commission.
—
Jeffrey Steele, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Jeffrey Steele, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for portended
Verb
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Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, said in a blog post on Wednesday that the currency intervention has failed and predicted a 15%-30% plunge for the peso is highly likely if voters reject Milei again.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
25 Oct. 2025
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This work had found geomagnetic storms occurring during periods when no solar eruptions were predicted to hit Earth.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Palomar, like many medical providers, has struggled to operate in the black since the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing psychiatric services, consolidating labor and delivery in Escondido and delaying promised bonuses to its workers.—
Paul Sisson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
23 Oct. 2025
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Des Cars promised to create no-parking perimeters in areas around the museum, upgrade the security camera system, and ask the interior ministry to establish a police station inside the museum.—
Thao Nguyen,
USA Today,
23 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The credit analyst said August retail sales boded well for the remainder of the bts period, which typicall runs through the end of September.—
Vicki M. Young,
Footwear News,
6 Oct. 2025
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Viral marketing tactics, coupled with strong social media word-of-mouth, boded well for both films’ success, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore.—
Itzel Luna,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Aug. 2025
Verb
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The day of her death Milwaukee police would be called three more times before Zettel took her last breath.—
David Clarey,
jsonline.com,
27 Oct. 2025
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Before dawn on July 18, 1858, Carrington was suddenly called home.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
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One of Redford’s last screen roles, which presaged his retirement from acting in 2018, was as the career criminal Forrest Tucker in David Lowery’s The Old Man & the Gun.—
K. Austin Collins,
The Atlantic,
16 Sep. 2025
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Her attraction to coloring books presaged her minimal style.—
News Desk,
Artforum,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
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All intermingling is foretold in the extraordinary opening number, which establishes the specific musical and dance motifs associated with each grouping.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
16 Oct. 2025
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Todd's second-ever screen role foretold his future prominence, as the taciturn Sgt.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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That may sound like a funny thing to say, in 2025, or in any year since the legendary rock singer-songwriter died in 2003, given a perennial underdog status that never augured for anything that would be likely to be called a posthumous groundswell, per se.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
24 Oct. 2025
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Husseini attempted to ply him with patronage, appointing him imam of a new mosque, but the cleric’s burgeoning following augured poorly for Husseini’s grip on power.—
Sean Durns,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Philosophers once prophesied that evolution would lead to minds far greater — and stranger — than our own.—
Thomas Moynihan,
Big Think,
20 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Portended.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/portended. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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