portentous

portentous
    adj 1: of momentous or ominous significance; "such a
           portentous...monster raised all my curiosity"- Herman
           Melville; "a prodigious vision" [syn: {portentous},
           {prodigious}]
    2: ominously prophetic [syn: {fateful}, {foreboding(a)},
       {portentous}]
    3: puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful manner";
       "overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech"; "pseudo-scientific
       gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek [syn:
       {grandiloquent}, {overblown}, {pompous}, {pontifical},
       {portentous}]
    

Portentous \Por*tent"ous\, a. [L. portentosus.]
   1. Of the nature of a portent; containing portents;
      foreshadowing, esp. foreshadowing ill; ominous.
      [1913 Webster]

            For, I believe, they are portentous things. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor.
                                                  --Macaulay.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a
      beast of portentous size. --Roscommon.
      [1913 Webster] -- {Por*tent"ous*ly}, adv. --
      {Por*tent"ous*ness}, n.
      [1913 Webster]
    

86 Moby Thesaurus words for "portentous":
      alarming, amazing, apocalyptic, astonishing, astounding,
      awe-inspiring, awesome, bad, baleful, baneful, black, bodeful,
      boding, dark, dire, doomful, dreary, earnest, evil, evil-starred,
      exceptional, extraordinary, fabulous, fantastic, fatal, fateful,
      foreboding, forerunning, forewarning, formidable, gloomy, grave,
      heavy, ill, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred,
      imposing, inauspicious, indescribable, ineffable, legendary,
      lowering, marvelous, menacing, mind-boggling, miraculous,
      momentous, mythical, noteworthy, of evil portent, ominous,
      phenomenal, portending, precautional, precautionary, precursive,
      precursory, premonitory, prodigious, prodromal, prodromic,
      remarkable, serious, sinister, sober, solemn, somber, star-crossed,
      stupefying, stupendous, threatening, unexampled, unfavorable,
      unfortunate, unlucky, unparalleled, unprecedented, unpromising,
      unpropitious, unspeakable, untoward, weighty, wonderful,
      wondrous