What's the difference between augury and portent?

Augury


Definition:

  • (n.) The art or practice of foretelling events by observing the actions of birds, etc.; divination.
  • (n.) An omen; prediction; prognostication; indication of the future; presage.
  • (n.) A rite, ceremony, or observation of an augur.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Almost instantly after the restart Pozuelo was allowed to dance forward before unloading an effort in what proved an augury of Swansea's grandstand finish.
  • (2) Even though the remnants of his political career may depend on winning this referendum, the auguries are not good.
  • (3) But the auguries of the imminent government spending review all suggest that the cuts will fall disproportionately upon those already most economically disadvantaged.
  • (4) This had arrived as early as 28 seconds as the first augury of Brazil's soured dream.
  • (5) Or perhaps not: even their own people have acknowledged that they face disaster in next month's European and local elections , which would cap a run of electoral disasters and thus highlight grim auguries for the general election.
  • (6) Those in search of a positive augury for Moyes and United had to reach back 30 years for the last time a 2-0 deficit was overturned in Europe.
  • (7) When a right whale was harpooned to death at Deptford in 1658, it was seen as an augury of the death of the dictator Oliver Cromwell.
  • (8) The City, meanwhile, is brimming with both good cheer and grim auguries.
  • (9) Wolfsburg’s Bas Dost and Max Kruse do enough to see off PSV Eindhoven Read more The sight of Phil Jones launching a hopeful high ball to Martial that missed the Frenchman was hardly the best augury that United might be about to find an equaliser with precision football.
  • (10) This is an unhappy augury for the future dental health of Nigeria.
  • (11) If, on this most popular and painfully human question, she will give no inch, that’s a terrible augury for how she intends to conduct these negotiations, opening with a war cry to all 27 countries: we hold your people hostage.
  • (12) "The [UMP] leaders have deliberately refused to execute a judicial order ... in politics, contempt for the justice system is a pretty bad augury for the quality of leaders," said Fillon's lawyer François Sureau.

Portent


Definition:

  • (n.) That which portends, or foretoken; esp., that which portends evil; a sign of coming calamity; an omen; a sign.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) David Moyes' first season in charge of United has been conspicuously torrid one, but a win here tonight would earn him no shortage of goodwill from supporters anxious for portents of better things to come next season.
  • (2) Theranos is a perfect tech company name – it sounds mysterious, Greek and portentous.
  • (3) In the letter written to the papers by 60 leading medical professionals on the first day of the House of Lords debate two weeks ago, they said portentously "the British people do not support the privatisation of the NHS".
  • (4) Even before final results were announced a statement from Romney, who was campaigning in Texas, sought to capitalise on the victory by acclaiming it a portent of what was to come.
  • (5) But the commander made it clear he considered full withdrawal to be a portent of disaster.
  • (6) The portents do not look good for Malaysia's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim , whose trial on highly dubious sodomy charges draws to a close this week.
  • (7) The advocacy of computer operators' needs by user-welfare groups, universities, labor unions, and government agencies are portents for achieving genuine improvements.
  • (8) Russell Crowe looks on stentorian form as the pre-flood patriarch, reeling from portents of the apocalypse and determined to protect his wife (Jennifer Connelly), his adopted daughter (Emma Watson) and the animals of the world.
  • (9) In previous tournaments that might have been seen as typical of the Murphy’s law that seems to apply to England at international competitions or at least as an ominous portent of things to come.
  • (10) Certain fishes have occasional circulating erythroplastids, conceptually a portent of phylogenetic changes in higher vertebrates.
  • (11) "My older brother Matt did it," he said, portentously, "I have to beat him."
  • (12) 42.5% - show that head injuries are most frequent; however, lesions of shoulders and upper and lower extremities are far more portentous ++ to the affected players in many respects.
  • (13) It is up to Wenger now to prove it was a blip rather than a portent of things to come.
  • (14) The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe is a portent, the last thing China wants to face in its own back yard.
  • (15) Today those theories are Film School 101, and Battleship Potemkin's technique is talked about more than its political portent.
  • (16) He described the Community Shield as being somewhere between a pre-season friendly and a Premier League fixture and he cautioned against it being treated as a portent for the season.
  • (17) These two cases serve to alert the physician that severe hypocholesterolemia is a portentous finding that may be associated both with a wide variety of diseases and with a high mortality rate.
  • (18) Add it all together and the portents are highly encouraging.
  • (19) After a party conference season in which health funding pledges were prominent, and with the NHS set to feature heavily in the runup to the 2015 general election, the byelection is a portent of political battles to come.
  • (20) The portent of these different haemostatic mechanisms upon repair of the endothelial cell wall and neovascularization have yet to be determined.