portent

First recorded in 1555–65; from Latin portentum “sign, token,” noun use of neuter of portentus, past participle of portendere “to signify, presage, portend”; see portend

synonym study for portent

1. See sign.

Words nearby portent

Porte, porte-cochere, Port Elizabeth, portend, port engineer, portent, portentous, porter, porterage, porter chair, Porter, Cole

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use portent in a sentence

Instead, the book seems to grapple with the question of how humanity deals with horrifying, large-scale change—and particularly, how complacency can outlast even the most obvious portents of disaster.
‘Something New Under the Sun’ Is a Climate-Change Mystery Set in Hollywood|smurguia|October 9, 2021|Outside Online
Amateur prognosticators, freelance seers, searchers for signs and pursuers of portents may regard Friday, which started the new year, with special scrutiny.
First day of new year unusually chilly, unusually wet|Martin Weil|January 2, 2021|Washington Post
If Cutler’s optimism is a portent of things to come, it may not be long before the ocean floor is dotted with sustainable datacenters to feed our ever-increasing reliance on our phones and the internet.
Microsoft Had a Crazy Idea to Put Servers Under Water—and It Totally Worked|Vanessa Bates Ramirez|September 17, 2020|Singularity Hub
At times, it seemed Leonard was awaiting a portent or an omen.
The Stacks: How Leonard Chess Helped Make Muddy Waters|Alex Belth|August 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Is this a passing phase or a portent of something more serious?
Fascism Is Fashionable Again in Europe|Thane Rosenbaum|June 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In Moscow, the cynics are the ones opposing the regime while the idealists are the ones still working for it: another bad portent.
This 1979 Novel Predicted Putin’s Invasion Of Crimea|Michael Weiss|May 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
As the great commentator, the Ramban, teaches, “everything that happened to the Patriarchs is a portent for the children.”
The Vulnerability of American Rabbis|Rabbi Jonah Geffen|November 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
And the use of reverberating metallic sound effects to imbue every other moment with sinister portent gets tedious after awhile.
‘Broadchurch’ Is Great TV for Fans of ‘Downton Abbey,’ ‘Doctor Who,’ and ‘Prime Suspect’|Andrew Romano|August 7, 2013|DAILY BEAST
It sounds ominously amid the stillness, like the portent of some calamity, horrible and sudden.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist|Alexander Berkman
Should purchases and rumoured purchases of land prove to be a portent, Dafydd had all to lose and nothing to gain by change.
Mushroom Town|Oliver Onions
The silence without was only portent of the storm so soon to burst.
Warrior Gap|Charles King
It was because he was a failure in literature that he became a portent in English history.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill|Gilbert K. Chesterton
There was some hidden portent in her tone which Jarvis failed to divine.
The Ghost Breaker|Charles Goddard

British Dictionary definitions for portent

portent

/ (ˈpɔːtɛnt) /

noun

a sign or indication of a future event, esp a momentous or calamitous one; omen

momentous or ominous significancea cry of dire portent

a miraculous occurrence; marvel

Word Origin for portent

C16: from Latin portentum sign, omen, from portendere to portend

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

portent

Definition of portent

OTHER WORDS FOR portent

Origin of portent

synonym study for portent

Words nearby portent

Words related to portent

How to use portent in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for portent

Word Origin for portent