transcription, транскрипция: [ pɔ:(r)tentəs ]
1.
If someone’s way of speaking, writing, or behaving is portentous , they speak, write, or behave more seriously than necessary because they want to impress other people. ( FORMAL )
There was nothing portentous or solemn about him. He was bubbling with humour.
...portentous prose.
= pompous
ADJ [ disapproval ]
• por‧ten‧tous‧ly
‘The difference is,’ he said portentously, ‘you are Anglo-Saxons, we are Latins.’
ADV : usu ADV with v
2.
Something that is portentous is important in indicating or affecting future events. ( FORMAL )
In social politics, too, the city’s contribution to 20th century thought and culture was no less portentous...
ADJ