portentuous
portentuous is the obsolete form of portentous.
Meaning of portentous
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
- 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
Forms of portentuous
| comparative | more portentuous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most portentuous |
Origin of portentuous
From Middle English portentuous, from Latin portentuōsus.
Questions about portentuous
- What is portentuous the obsolete form of?
- Portentuous is the obsolete form of portentous.
Words near portentuous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: portentuous (page history and authors); portentous (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “portentuous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/portentuous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.