portend

as in to predict
formal + literary to be a sign or warning that something usually bad or unpleasant is going to happen The distant thunder portended a storm. If you're superstitious, a black cat portends trouble.

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of portend There is also discussion of the $10 billion Walter’s TWG Global holding company recently received from Mubadala Capital, an investment arm of Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund based in the United Arab Emirates, and what that transaction portends for Walter’s next move. Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 24 June 2025 Do these early-season fires portend a particularly destructive season to come? Corey Buhay, Outside Online, 18 June 2025 The ten-year moratorium on A.I. regulation portends a similar legacy. Dan Perry, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 June 2025 While Israel carried out direct strikes on Iran in April and October of last year, Friday’s attack is significantly larger in scale and could portend a more intense level of conflict — and one with a nuclear dimension, as Israel struck Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Tobias Burns, The Hill, 13 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for portend
Recent Examples of Synonyms for portend
Verb
  • Unlike the 2011 Groundhog Day blizzard that meteorologists predicted days in advance, this storm was harder to pinpoint, said National Weather Service meteorologist David Beachler at the time.
    Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 7 July 2025
  • The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the region through Monday evening, predicting potential rainfall of 2 to 4 inches, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches.
    Brandi D. Addison, Austin American Statesman, 7 July 2025
Verb
  • Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel both promised to release more information on the case after joining the administration, and Trump allies like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk have also publicly called for the files to be made public.
    Meredith Kile, People.com, 15 July 2025
  • India first announced a new EV policy last year that promised to reduce duties for companies that commit to building up a local supply chain.
    Dylan Butts, CNBC, 15 July 2025
Verb
  • And the results presaged Democrats’ 2020 Peach State success, when Biden won the state — and the presidency — while the party nabbed both of Georgia’s Senate seats.
    David Mark, The Washington Examiner, 4 July 2025
  • Over the years, Charlamagne built the kind of deeply personal relationship with his audience that presaged the always-on culture of content creators of the 21st century.
    Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 23 June 2025
Verb
  • Breakouts might call for the Salicylic + Green Tea Exfoliating Cleanser and Aloe + Algae Lightweight Gel Cream, whereas dry skin might crave a boost of moisture from the Hyaluronic + Arnica Hydrating Serum.
    Lisa DeSantis, Allure, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Marx himself would call DEI a classic case of ideology, a set of benign-seeming ideas that disguise the workings of the rulers, in this case empowered progressives.
    WSJ, WSJ, 14 Feb. 2023
Verb
  • For example, a docking in geosynchronous orbit could foretell an emerging capability for China to approach, capture, and disable another country's satellite.
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 8 July 2025
  • And my latest podcast: The warranted narrative of this Florida Panthers’ postseason had been the team’s stellar play away from home -- airports and hotels somehow foretelling unlikely magic on ice.
    Greg Cote June 29, Miami Herald, 29 June 2025
Verb
  • With the third season of The White Lotus well underway—and its signature sense of foreboding steadily mounting—cast member Michelle Monaghan was in anything but ominous spirits last night at The Mark Hotel.
    Laura Neilson, Vogue, 19 Mar. 2025
  • Too on-the-nose to be foreboding, such clips offer a window into Linda’s mindset, as do antagonistic sessions with her therapist (and co-worker), amusingly played by Conan O’Brien with a look of constant gastric discomfort on his face that suggests her concerns may be giving him ulcers.
    Peter Debruge, Variety, 24 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • The uncertainty over that bedrock constitutional question augurs future cases that will clarify the scope of transgender rights.
    Stephen Humphries, Christian Science Monitor, 18 June 2025
  • Oddly, these momentous changes received little or no coverage in the Danish press, despite auguring the coming dissolution of the Rigsfællesskabet, or Danish Realm.
    Morten Høi Jensen, The Dial, 19 June 2025

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“Portend.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/portend. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.

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