portentousness
Weighty dramatic foreboding
Portentousness is the quality of being ominous or weighted with grave significance—or of affecting such gravity.
A film's portentousness might come from its sweeping score and brooding silences.
The word often carries a whiff of criticism, suggesting pompous self-importance: The professor's portentousness made even small announcements feel like prophecy.
Quality of seeming threatening
- dreadIntense anticipatory fear
- apprehensionNervous anticipation of trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
- menaceSource of potential harm
doom · threat · specter · shadow · unease · trepidation · misgiving · dark
Serious, dignified quality
- weightinessState of being consequential
- seriousnessEarnest, weighty demeanor
- momentousnessState of great significance
- significanceQuality of mattering
importance · earnestness · profoundness · severity · heaviness · dignity · somberness · austerity
Prophetic indicator
- harbingerOne who foreshadows
- presageIndicate beforehand
- auguryOmen interpretation practice
- prophecyForetelling of future events
oracle · divination · forewarning · foreshadowing · herald · precursor · sign · indicator
Exaggerated sense of importance
- bombastPretentious hollow language
- self-importanceExaggerated sense of significance
- pretentiousnessShowy self-importance
- grandiloquencePompous, extravagant language
inflation · ostentation · theatricality · affectation · posturing · pontificating · highfalutin · overblown
ominousness
Quality of seeming threatening
- dreadIntense anticipatory fear
- apprehensionNervous anticipation of trouble
- premonitionAdvance sense of future events
menace · doom · threat · specter · shadow · unease · trepidation · misgiving · dark · dire
solemnity
Serious, dignified quality
- weightinessState of being consequential
- seriousnessEarnest, weighty demeanor
- momentousnessState of great significance
significance · importance · earnestness · profoundness · severity · heaviness · dignity · somberness · austerity · graveness
omen
Prophetic indicator
prophecy · oracle · divination · forewarning · foreshadowing · herald · precursor · sign · indicator · auspice
grandiosity
Exaggerated sense of importance
- bombastPretentious hollow language
- self-importanceExaggerated sense of significance
- pretentiousnessShowy self-importance
grandiloquence · inflation · ostentation · theatricality · affectation · posturing · pontificating · highfalutin · overblown · puffed-up
portentousnesstriviality
Unimportant small matter
lightheartedness · levity · lightness · inconsequence · frivolity
portentousnesshumility
Freedom from arrogance
modesty · unpretentiousness · self-effacement · plainness · simplicity
portentousnessharmlessness
Inability to cause damage
innocuousness · benignity · benign · reassurance · cheerfulness
opportunity, opportune, portent, portentous, importune, portentously, portents