portentous
Syllables: por·ten·tous/pɔː(ɹ)ˈtɛntəs//pɔrˈtɛn(t)əs/
portentous adjective: of momentous or ominous significance.
Adjective
portentous (comparative more portentous, superlative most portentous)
- Of momentous or ominous significance.
- Well may it sort [be fitting] that this portentous figure comes armed through our watch, so like the King that was and is the question of these wars.c. 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 1, scene 1; republished as Hamlet, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1992, →ISBN, page 4
- It is no longer in my possession, but my memory holds almost every word of its portentous message; and again I affirm my confidence in the sanity of the man who wrote it.1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 2, in The Whisperer in Darkness
- Synonyms:
- ominous, momentous, big, central, consequential, critical, crucial, epochful, essential, extraordinary
- Ominously prophetic.
- Synonyms:
- foreshadowing, predictive, premonitory, prognosticatory, augurous, baleful, bodeful, boding, dire, disastrous
- Puffed up with vanity.
- Synonyms:
- vain
portentous meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
portentous in Hindi
- portentous; turbulent, violent, factious
- उपद्रवी upadravī
portentous in Tamil
- தீய அறிகுறி காட்டும், துர்சகுனமான, துர்நிமித்தமான, நம்ப முடியாத, ஆச்சரியமூட்டும்
portentous in Urdu
- عجیب, منحوس, نحس, پرہول
portentous in Malayalam
- premonitory, ominous, warning
- അശുഭസൂചനകമായ, അമംഗളസൂചനകമായ, അശുഭലക്ഷണത്തോടു കൂടിയ, മുന്നറിവു കൊടുക്കുന്ന, താക്കീതി രൂപത്തിലുള്ള, മുന്നറിയിപ്പി രൂപത്തിലുള്ള
- bombastic, pom-pous, self-important
- ശബ്ദാഡംബരമുള്ള, ശബ്ദധോരണിയായ, പൊള്ളപ്രതാപം കാട്ടുന്ന, ഔദ്ധത്യമുള്ള, അഹംഭാവമുള്ള, അഹമ്മതിയുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
- portentous in Kannada
- ಭಯಸೂಚಕ, ಅಶುಭಸೂಚಕ, ಅರಿಷ್ಟಸೂಚಕ, ಮಹಾಗಾಂಭೀರ್ಯದ
Synonyms of portentous
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- fateful
- heavy
- pivotal
- high on the totem pole
- historic
- innegligible
- key
- life-or-death
- meaningful
- necessary
- noted
- noticeable
- observable
- outstanding
- paramount
- pertinent
- relevant
- remarkable
- salient
- significant
- unignorable
- valuable
- vital
- weighty
- foreshadowing
- predictive
- premonitory
- prognosticatory
- augurous
- baleful
Antonyms
Forms of portentous
| comparative | more portentous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most portentous |
Origin of portentous
Of multiple origins: * Borrowed from Latin portentōsus, from portentus (“predicted”) + -ōsus. Compare earlier portentuous (via Middle English from Latin portentuōsus). By surface analysis, portent + -ous. * Borrowed from French portentueux
Words formed from portentous
Questions about portentous
- What does portentous mean?
- Portentous means of momentous or ominous significance.
- What is portentous in Hindi?
- Portentous in Hindi is उपद्रवी (upadravī). See Portentous meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is portentous?
- Portentous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce portentous?
- Portentous is pronounced /pɔː(ɹ)ˈtɛntəs/.
Words near portentous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: portentous (page history and authors); उपद्रवी (Hindi) (page history and authors); portentous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portentous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); portentous (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); portentous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “portentous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/portentous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.