Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“It should obviously be being written as comedy. Instead, the story is being chronicled with maximum portentousness by its own protagonists.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 6, 2025

At the time, plenty of rival news outlets—including Slate—ribbed the Post for its portentousness.

From Slate • Mar. 1, 2025

This heavy material could have been milked for mawkish portentousness; Agocs and Dhegrae realized that restraint would be more powerful.

From New York Times • Dec. 10, 2021

And it’s that very irony which Mendes replaces with a lumbering portentousness.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 7, 2020

That Himmalehan, salt-sea, Mastodon, clothed with such portentousness of unconscious power, that his very panics are more to be dreaded than his most fearless and malicious assaults!

From Moby Dick: or, the White Whale by Melville, Herman