What's the difference between betoken and portend?

Betoken


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To signify by some visible object; to show by signs or tokens.
  • (v. t.) To foreshow by present signs; to indicate something future by that which is seen or known; as, a dark cloud often betokens a storm.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But ‘widespread and systematic’ does betoken government control.” Crane said: “Now we have direct evidence of what was happening to people who had disappeared.
  • (2) Their suicide exploits inside Israel proper betokened the much larger meaning which the intifada carried for them: "complete liberation" to which, in his early years, Arafat had subscribed.
  • (3) The head of the ulna almost certainly betokens a range of radioulnar supination in cercopithecoids that is substantially less than is to be found in any of the hominoid genera.
  • (4) But the differences between the various conditions were small (below 20 degrees) and seem attributable to various distortions of the response wave from away from a true sinusoid, rather than betokening a difference in the ratio of velocity to length sensitivity under the various conditions.
  • (5) RFK reportedly adored JFK, while the latter was capable of snarling putdowns that surely betokened a fragile sense of self-worth pathetic in the most powerful man on the planet.
  • (6) All these properties betoken the polysaccharidic nature of M antigen.
  • (7) His recorded observations on colour blindness are detailed and precise and betoken the approach which was to characterise all his later research in chemistry.
  • (8) The proportional increase of elderly persons in most communities and increasing tooth retention among them betoken considerable change in gerodontic needs.
  • (9) As he speaks, there is, behind those crypto-Trotskyist glasses, a glint betokening political ardour.

Portend


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshow; to foretoken; to bode; -- now used esp. of unpropitious signs.
  • (v. t.) To stretch out before.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We conclude that CSR is a relatively common breathing pattern in patients who required MVS because of cardiogenic PE and does not portend a poor immediate prognosis in this population.
  • (2) The initial encouraging results with PSCT so far portend a major therapeutic role of this modality in the approach to hematologic and oncologic diseases.
  • (3) When the low-back pain is disabling and surgery becomes necessary, failure to obtain a fusion portends a poor clinical result.
  • (4) This portends a gloomy scenario for the poorer populations of Europe in the 1990s.
  • (5) However, recent changes in societal perceptions about environmental risks, corporate health care practices, and medical reimbursement patterns favoring provision by hospitals of contractual outpatient services to healthy workers all portend expanded involvement of residents in certain occupational medicine activities in the future, in response to economic pressures on both consumers and providers.
  • (6) Collapse, although infrequent, still portends a grave prognosis (61% of cases of collapse led to death at Charles Foix Hospital).
  • (7) We conclude that: (1) thalamic involvement portends a poor prognosis both in terms of histology and survival, (2) beneficial effects of RT are difficult to demonstrate and (3) therapy for pediatric diencephalic gliomas should be individualized and long-term spontaneous remissions may occur.
  • (8) As with "dedifferentiated" chondrosarcomas and liposarcomas, "dedifferentiation" in a chordoma usually portends an accelerated clinical course.
  • (9) Time will tell whether elevated levels of bioactive beta-hCG portend neoplastic potential.
  • (10) Read more “It’s an early warning sign and I think it just portends a massive wind of change in the future.” Studies have shown that higher rates of unemployment are linked to less volunteerism and higher crime .
  • (11) Stage I cutaneous malignant melanomas between 0.76 and 1.69 mm thick (Breslow measurement) in BANS (upper part of the back, posterior aspects of the arms, posterior and lateral aspects of the neck, posterior aspect of the scalp) areas have been reported to portend a relatively poor prognosis compared to non-BANS sites.
  • (12) Massive cecal dilatation often dominates the radiographic presentation and may portend perforation.
  • (13) A bilateral sixth nerve palsy portends serious disease of the central nervous system and precipitates extensive patient studies.
  • (14) Although previous chemical modification studies had implicated these residues as ligands, the earlier results did not portend the new finding that of all the conserved cysteines only these 2 residues are required for a second function of the Fe-protein.
  • (15) Computed tomography portends an even greater diagnostic sensitivity.
  • (16) An injury at work affects the professional athlete more than his nonathlete counterpart because it may portend the end of his playing career.
  • (17) The BBC will feel vulnerable on all three fronts unless and until the right person is securely in place, and history does not portend well to their being chosen with care.
  • (18) Accordingly, while the results, unlike those of others, do not portend a future for this form of serodiagnosis in the management of tuberculosis, they offer intriguing hints as to the basis of the variable immunogenicity and pathogenicity of strains of M. tuberculosis.
  • (19) Occlusion of the common and internal carotid arteries in a patient with symptomatic severe cerebral ischemia, with or without contralateral carotid disease, portends a poor prognosis.
  • (20) These conditions often manifest as profound shock upon hospital presentation and portend a grim prognosis.