portentous Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite of momentous or ominous significance
    prodigious.
    • such a portentous...monster raised all my curiosity"- Herman Melville
    • a prodigious vision
  2. adjective satellite ominously prophetic
    foreboding; fateful.
  3. adjective satellite puffed up with vanity
    pompous; grandiloquent; overblown; pontifical.
    • a grandiloquent and boastful manner
    • overblown oratory
    • a pompous speech
    • pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek

WordNet

Por*tent"ous adjective
Etymology
L. portentosus.
Definitions
  1. Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreschadowing, esp. foreschadowing ill; ominous.
    For, I believe, they are portentous things. Shak.
    Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor. Macaulay.
  2. Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a beast of portentous size. Roscommon. -- Por*tent"ous*ly, adv. -- Por*tent"ous*ness, n.

Webster 1913