portentous

Synonyms for portentous

adj exciting; foreboding

adjective. significant

1540s, from Latin portentosus "monstrous, marvelous, threatening," from portentem "portent" (see portend). Related: Portentously.

Naming him was a portentous proceeding and one not to be lightly gone about.

I was as a man sapped of all strength by some portentous struggle.

He delivered himself of this long speech with an air of portentous gravity.

The most portentous crisis in the history of the human family has just passed.

Therefore he drew him aside in a manner as portentous and ingratiating as he could make it.

Her feathers even were portentous in the moonlight, like the plumage of some gigantic bird.

Nell dropped the paper and struggled with a portentous yawn.

"I have no idea what you mean," she said, surprised at the portentous tone.

He would take the most weighty and portentous with an air of contempt.

The development is so portentous that it calls for a little study.