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  1. portentous love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Of the nature of or constituting a portent; foreboding: "The present aspect of society is portentous of great change” ( Edward Bellamy).
  2. adj. Full of unspecifiable significance; exciting wonder and awe: "Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity” ( Herman Melville).
  3. adj. Marked by pompousness; pretentiously weighty.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Of the nature of a portent; ominous; foreshowing ill.
  2. Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Of momentous or ominous significance.
  2. adj. Ominously prophetic.
  3. adj. Puffed up with vanity.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreshadowing, esp. foreshadowing ill; ominous.
  2. adj. Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. of momentous or ominous significance
  2. adj. ominously prophetic
  3. adj. puffed up with vanity

Examples

  • “Harris's great skill lies in pulling back every time her creation veers towards the portentous, that is to say the Tolkienesque ....”

    Runemarks: Summary and book reviews of Runemarks by Joanne Harris.

  • “The decision to allow infant baptism is described as portentous: a dramatic sign which foreshadows something.”

    the problem of infant baptism

  • “Yes, this has been what you might call a portentous evening," agreed”

    The Motor Girls Through New England or, Held by the Gypsies

  • “Nation's whole name is Carrie Amelia Nation, but having noticed from old records that her father wrote the first name "Carry," she now does the same, and considers the name portentous as concerns what she is trying and means to do.”

    The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation

  • “Mrs. Nation's whole name is Carrie Amelia Nation, but having noticed from old records that her father wrote the first name "Carry," she now does the same, and considers the name portentous as concerns what she is trying and means to do.”

    The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation

  • “Last month the judges -- bleary-eyed from reading 130 nominated books each -- attacked publishers for submitting works they called "portentous," "pretentious" and "pompous.”

    Newsweek: Eyes On The Prize

  • “Her face was fixed on her, through the night; she was the creature who had escaped by force from her cage, yet there was in her whole motion assuredly, even as so dimly discerned, a kind of portentous intelligent stillness.”

    The Golden Bowl — Volume 2

  • “Society-wide measures of religious behavior muffle portentous change that may be occurring at the younger edge of the population, so social prognosticators just like commercial advertisers focus on trends among young adults, trying to discern which aspects of behavior are what they are because the youths are young, and which aspects are what they are because of when they are young.”

    Simon & Schuster: American Grace

  • “Because of its longevity as a shaper of the partisan landscape, changes in abortion attitudes are especially portentous.”

    Simon & Schuster: American Grace

  • “The trend on attitudes toward abortion among young people likely has a different, but no less portentous, implication.”

    Simon & Schuster: American Grace

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synonyms (6)

Words with the same meaning

  1. ominous
  1. prodigious
  1. wonderful
  1. dreadful
  1. significant
  1. extraordinary

equivalents (5)

Other words for ‘portentous’

  1. significant
  1. important
  1. prophetical
  1. prophetic
  1. pretentious

same context (13)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. ominous
  2. terrify
  1. awful
  2. unearthly
  1. startle
  2. momentous
  1. stupendous
  2. solemn
  1. lurid
  2. terrific
  1. astound
  2. majestic
  1. ghastly

rhymes (2)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. apprentice
  1. momentous

reverse dictionary (12)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. dire
  2. ostentful
  1. bodeful
  2. ominousness
  1. portentously
  2. fateful
  1. portentous
  2. prodigious
  1. prodigy
  2. sign
  1. portentive
  2. ominous

tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘portentous’

  1. portentious

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Lists

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Comments

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  • jwjarvis on his talk show to weigh in on the portentous topic Nov 10, 2010

  • bilby "Once established before the grate, and consoling himself for the inadequacy of the dinner by the perfection of his cigar, Mr. Jackson became portentous and communicable."
    - Edith Wharton, 'The Age of Innocence'. Sep 19, 2009

  • tea "Probably no ship in modern history has carried a more portentous freight." pg 23, A People's History of the United States Dec 26, 2007

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‘portentous’ has been looked up 6363 times, loved by 11 people, added to 87 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.