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
And Smith was certain that these two short plays portended a great future for the twenty-year-old in the dramatic arts.
—
Literary Hub, 12 Dec. 2025
Martin County’s anti-development history portended a quick and certain rejection by the county commission.
—Jeffrey Steele, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Literary Hub, 12 Dec. 2025
Martin County’s anti-development history portended a quick and certain rejection by the county commission.
—Jeffrey Steele, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for portended
Verb
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Who is predicted to win the Eagles-49ers?—
Tom Ignudo,
CBS News,
11 Jan. 2026
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In the ensuing decade, Wedding would follow a path few could have predicted.—
Jesse Hyde,
Rolling Stone,
10 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Touting Hartford’s commitment to due process and the rule of law, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam promised a thorough investigation into a violent incident at a vigil Thursday night between protesters and what are believed to be federal employees.—
Kaitlin McCallum,
Hartford Courant,
9 Jan. 2026
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The president who promised to always put America First and decried foreign interventions that lead to nation-building is now standing astride the globe with the ambition of bending it to his will.—
Nolan Finley,
Twin Cities,
9 Jan. 2026
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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Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly endorsed the deal and called the immediate vote to begin the process of approving it as the shutdown continued to disrupt flights nationwide, threaten food assistance for millions of Americans and leave federal workers without pay.—
Orianna Rosa Royle,
Fortune,
10 Nov. 2025
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The book is called The Care and Keeping of You.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
Verb
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In other seasons, that minor miscue would’ve presaged a bitter and deserved ending and another loss to their rivals, who were operating with their backup quarterback Malik Willis after Jordan Love left with a concussion in the second quarter.—
Jon Greenberg,
New York Times,
21 Dec. 2025
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Italian Conceptual artist and theorist Franco Vaccari, whose participatory photographic works presaged the logics of social media and helped photography gain recognition as an art form, died on December 12.—
News Desk,
Artforum,
18 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Yang foretold his exit, coincidentally or not, in April.—
Tony Maglio,
HollywoodReporter,
19 Dec. 2025
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Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s Mansion Languished Jen and Ben’s divorce was foretold, like so many divorces, when the couple listed their house.—
Clio Chang,
Curbed,
18 Dec. 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 12 Jan. 2026.
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