How to Use portentous in a Sentence

portentous

adjective
Definition of portentousnext
Synonyms for portentousnext
  • The book, which came out in Sweden in 2018, feels portentous in so many ways.
    — Zibby Owens, Washington Post, 16 Mar. 2020
  • The first sentence sounds the alarm in a portentous poetic rhythm (The fight is here).
    — Susan J. Wolfson, The Atlantic, 18 June 2022
  • Bad as smash-crash-bash can be, portentous smash-crash-bash is far worse.
    — Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 14 June 2023
  • Muad’Dib is also the name for a little rodent that hops around their desert, which is why the movie has a lot of portentous shots of a cute mouse.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 19 Oct. 2021
  • It was first published in 1966, the year of my birth, which struck me as terribly portentous.
    — Design Art B., Longreads, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Two years ago, even a month ago, such a minor symptom would not have seemed portentous.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 8 Aug. 2021
  • But there was still something portentous about a large whale stranding.
    — National Geographic, 9 Apr. 2018
  • These days, a delay of minutes can feel eternal and portentous.
    — Emily Bobrow, WSJ, 4 Dec. 2018
  • Like other major moments in the film, the tension is heightened by Ishaan Chhabra’s thrilling, portentous score.
    — Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Nov. 2017
  • The cataclysm sparked by the portentous result that brought the ruling coalition, Frente de Todos, to the precipice seems to have sucked the air out of the political arena.
    — Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes, 27 Oct. 2021
  • The dimming of the light means a cooling of temperatures, and a portentous lick of wind may come up as the eclipse reaches totality.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 18 Aug. 2017
  • This is a portentous touch, but the poem describes feelings that can arise every winter.
    — Richard Brookhiser, National Review, 19 Dec. 2019
  • As the arc of the show grows increasingly macabre, some of the portentous weight of birthing — the need to make the perfect choices, to give birth in an ideal and aspirational way — gives way to a wicked sense of fun.
    — Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2023
  • For all her strengths, Campbell does have one conspicuous weakness, for the form of the overheated and portentous quote.
    — Scott Anderson, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2017
  • With the agility of a dolphin, that pig sailed (mostly) over the electric wire, dragging just a little bit of his portentous belly across it and barging through the barbed wire fence.
    — Lauren Ritchie, OrlandoSentinel.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • That job — conveying portentous urgency — would have to fall to the novel’s prose.
    — Joan Frank, Washington Post, 12 July 2023
  • Gemini opens with an upside-down image of palm trees, silhouetted against the L.A. night sky and hanging from the top of the frame like portentous, spindly bats.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 30 Mar. 2018
  • There are plenty of meaningful looks, but just not enough meaning to sustain this heavy, portentous tone.
    — Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2022
  • The trailer is peppered with a series of portentous images: A man burning a handful of papers.
    — Travis M. Andrews, chicagotribune.com, 9 May 2018
  • The interlude gave body and soul a brief respite from all the portentous solemnity of a ceremony that marched in time to tradition but at times felt out of step with this world.
    — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 6 May 2023
  • The Cuban slugger also included his usual array of bat flips and portentous pauses at the plate.
    — Molly Blue, OregonLive.com, 15 Oct. 2017
  • Further testing showed the portentous bump in the data to be just a statistical anomaly.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 22 Nov. 2016
  • Her singing voice is a magisterial thing — epic and portentous, even a little scary.
    — Owen Myers, EW.com, 30 June 2022
  • The song, from Barnett’s partner, has a tidy structure and portentous mood that’s different from most of what’s in Barnett’s or Vile’s catalogues.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 13 Oct. 2017
  • But the phrase feels more portentous than exhilarating, given the source.
    — Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2022
  • The most portentous challenge to the current international order comes in Asia, with the rise of Chinese power.
    — Fareed Zakaria, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023
  • But unlike the relative low-budget kicks of his previous two films, Glass has lots of portentous self-importance that the movie never quite earns.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 26 July 2021
  • Three brown-skinned figures peer over the barrier in the upper left corner, perhaps the only witnesses to this portentous standoff.
    — Sharon Mizota, Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2019
  • The new Spider-Man, the Guardians, and now Thor are the exact opposite of portentous or overly self-serious protagonists.
    — Josh Spiegel, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Mar. 2018
  • Over at Harvey’s, over a dinner of milk and tuna (great makeout food), Morningstar realizes that Harvey has those portentous doodles of the Terrors framed on his walls.
    — Jessica Goldstein, Vulture, 1 Jan. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'portentous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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