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
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Recent Examples of portend
For now, the business world is again struggling to divine which of Mr. Trump’s pronouncements are merely a gambit, and which portend real changes.
—
Peter S. Goodman, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2025
Despite causing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu, the move did not portend any major changes in the war.
—Jennifer Hansler, CNN, 16 Feb. 2025
That could portend a ballot measure in 2026 or 2028, depending on the report's conclusions.
—Andrew Keatts, Axios, 10 Feb. 2025
Carlile hasn’t announced further plans for 2025, but did premiere a new song at Girls Just Wanna that would seem to portend an album this year.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 20 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for portend
Peter S. Goodman, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2025
Despite causing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu, the move did not portend any major changes in the war.
—Jennifer Hansler, CNN, 16 Feb. 2025
That could portend a ballot measure in 2026 or 2028, depending on the report's conclusions.
—Andrew Keatts, Axios, 10 Feb. 2025
Carlile hasn’t announced further plans for 2025, but did premiere a new song at Girls Just Wanna that would seem to portend an album this year.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 20 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for portend
Recent Examples of Synonyms for portend
Verb
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Women possessed by the gods were oracles, predicting the future in cryptic utterances.—
Vipin Bharathan,
Forbes,
9 Mar. 2025
-
Tremble didn’t have the 2024 season that many predicted.—
Alex Zietlow and,
Charlotte Observer,
9 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Trump has promised to bring back coal, and those two states have subsequently provided him his greatest margins of victory over the past three presidential election cycles.—
Newsweek,
Newsweek,
7 Mar. 2025
-
Trump has promised to expand the country’s oil and gas production with an eye to economic growth and lower prices.—
Justin Worland,
TIME,
7 Mar. 2025
Verb
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And just as that communication breakdown presaged an explosion, so too did this one.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA TODAY,
7 Mar. 2025
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State of play: Councilwoman Rebecca Maurer and Council President Blaine Griffin went at each other in public remarks, presaging what could be a larger ideological battle about the new ward map.—
Sam Allard,
Axios,
26 Nov. 2024
Verb
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Their children’s schoolmates call the sisters the Puffling Queens.—
Cheryl Katz,
Smithsonian Magazine,
14 Feb. 2023
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Those in need of shelter from the cold can call 211 to check availability of beds.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb. 2023
Verb
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Kessler’s hiring could foretell antitrust litigation that would rattle a hockey world already coming to terms with the NCAA allowing more junior players to join Division I college teams.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
25 Jan. 2025
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Written soon after the death of Mahler’s daughter and soon before his own, the symphony is a sombre, reflective, and reverberant adieu, brewing such melancholy that Leonard Bernstein theorized that Mahler was foretelling his own end.—
The New Yorker,
The New Yorker,
10 Jan. 2025
Verb
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Despite the difficulty, in some cases the stakes are so high—as with North Korea and its nuclear weapons—that armies will have no choice but to take the fight to what is often a vast, foreboding underworld.—
Kyle Mizokami,
Popular Mechanics,
27 June 2023
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There are foreboding close-ups on clock faces and their fast-changing digits.—
Erica Gonzales,
ELLE,
23 June 2023
Verb
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The items can be accessed by the customer turning a little knob that augurs the product into the customer’s hand.—
Roger Dooley,
Forbes,
21 Feb. 2025
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Yet human-rights advocates believe that the incorporation of Islamist elements into the interim administration augurs diminishing space for minorities.—
Charlie Campbell,
TIME,
21 Nov. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Portend.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/portend. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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