portentous
Heavy with foreboding
Portentous describes something ominous or threatening, suggesting momentous events to come: portentous clouds gathering on the horizon, a portentous silence fell over the room.
The word can also mean self-consciously weighty or pompous—someone speaking in portentous tones takes themselves very seriously.
Both senses connect to portent, an omen of significance.
Having notable importance
- historicOf lasting significance
- epochalMarking a historic division
- monumentalExceptionally large or significant
- landmarkNotable point of reference
pivotal · critical · transformative · consequential · weighty · seminal · far-reaching · fateful
Suggesting something bad approaches
- menacingConveying threat or danger
- threateningExpressing intent to harm
- sinisterThreateningly suggestive of harm
- direExtremely serious or urgent
grim · baleful · inauspicious · dark · fateful · ill-omened · foreboding · dread
Authoritative wisdom source
- seerOne who envisions futures
- auguryOmen interpretation practice
- divinationForetelling through mystical means
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
omen · prophecy · visionary · prediction · presage · prognostication · foreshadowing · sign
Exaggerating one's own significance
- bombasticExcessively inflated language
- grandiosePretentiously impressive in scale
- grandiloquentPretentiously elevated in speech
- overblownInflated beyond reasonable proportion
pontifical · pretentious · ostentatious · inflated · solemn · affected · highfalutin · magniloquent
significant
Having notable importance
- historicOf lasting significance
- epochalMarking a historic division
- monumentalExceptionally large or significant
landmark · pivotal · critical · transformative · consequential · weighty · seminal · far-reaching · fateful · momentous
ominous
Suggesting something bad approaches
- menacingConveying threat or danger
- threateningExpressing intent to harm
- sinisterThreateningly suggestive of harm
dire · grim · baleful · inauspicious · dark · fateful · ill-omened · foreboding · dread · apprehension
oracle
Authoritative wisdom source
- seerOne who envisions futures
- auguryOmen interpretation practice
- divinationForetelling through mystical means
harbinger · omen · prophecy · visionary · prediction · presage · prognostication · foreshadowing · sign · forewarning
self-important
Exaggerating one's own significance
- bombasticExcessively inflated language
- grandiosePretentiously impressive in scale
- grandiloquentPretentiously elevated in speech
overblown · pontifical · pretentious · ostentatious · inflated · solemn · affected · highfalutin · magniloquent · orotund
portentousauspicious
Indicating future success
propitious · promising · hopeful · encouraging · favorable
portentousinsignificant
Lacking importance or consequence
trivial · inconsequential · unimportant · mundane · ordinary
portentousunpretentious
Lacking false superiority
humble · modest · unassuming · down-to-earth · understated