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say it: pawr-TEN-tuhs
portentous is an adjective meaning "of momentous or ominous significance". It carries 3 recorded senses.
of momentous or ominous significance
“such a portentous...monster raised all my curiosity”
“a prodigious vision”
ominously prophetic
puffed up with vanity
“a grandiloquent and boastful manner”
“overblown oratory”
“a pompous speech”
“pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey”
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for portentous come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.