Portend

//pɔɹˈtɛnd// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To serve as a warning or omen of. transitive

    "A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom, / Real or allegoric, I discern not; Nor when: eternal sure--as without end,"

  2. 2
    indicate, as with a sign or an omen wordnet
  3. 3
    To signify; to denote. transitive

    "Let it be known that the Rapture portends the End of Days."

Synonyms

All synonyms
bodeforeshadowforeshadowpresagepresageadumbrate

Example

More examples

"We now understand, the black birds in the painting portend the fate of the painter."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin portendere (“to foretell”), from por- (“forward”) + tendere (“to stretch”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.