What's the difference between harbinger and portend?

Harbinger


Definition:

  • (n.) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
  • (n.) A forerunner; a precursor; a messenger.
  • (v. t.) To usher in; to be a harbinger of.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, sepsis-associated CNS dysfunction appears to be as important a harbinger of excess mortality as renal or pulmonary dysfunction in septic patients.
  • (2) A strong hi-tech presence was a harbinger of better health; a dependence on older manufacturing industries was associated with poorer health.
  • (3) "May the supreme court’s move be a harbinger of other, more responsible, decisions to come."
  • (4) It's not obvious what this harbinger of doom is supposed to be.
  • (5) Acquired isolated oculomotor palsies in some cases are not necessarily a harbinger of serious disease.
  • (6) Lastly, the occurrence of coagulase-negative staphylococcal peritonitis is a harbinger of future episodes of peritonitis caused by a variety of organisms.
  • (7) In the former illness, reduced blink rate signifies a worsening of the illness and a significant increase in blink rate in patients treated with dopamine agonist may be a harbinger of agonist-induced dyskinesia.
  • (8) We feel this is a harbinger of what could come, for what it indicates in terms of what the future holds."
  • (9) Allende's election three years before at the head of a socialist-communist coalition had a significance far beyond Chile itself, being widely seen as the harbinger of similar projects in countries such as France and Italy, as well as the beginning of a "second Cuba" in Latin America itself.
  • (10) Isis sees itself as a harbinger of the end of times.
  • (11) EL: The first psychiatrist I saw subscribed very much to the same view as my friend and the GP – that my voice (and bear in mind, it's still only a single voice at this time) was a sinister harbinger of something much more serious.
  • (12) It presents to the anesthesiologist the immediate problem of airway management but it also must be recognized by the physician as a harbinger of malignant hyperthermia.
  • (13) "Apple's new Siri Assistant, unique to the new 4S, is a powerful harbinger of the future use of mobile devices – not just the power of voice but, more importantly, the ability to contextualise a statement or request.
  • (14) Proteinuria is the clinical hallmark of diabetic nephropathy and the harbinger of progressive renal disease.
  • (15) In the depressed elderly, characteristic EEG changes occur that may help distinguish major depression from pseudodementia; however, it should be considered that pseudodementia may be a harbinger of primary dementia.
  • (16) Mesangial cell proliferation, which is a harbinger of glomerulosclerosis, occurs in both immune and nonimmune glomerulopathies.
  • (17) BP BP was the harbinger of privatisations when James Callaghan's Labour government parcelled off a chunk of the oil giant in the 1970s.
  • (18) Hezbollah's lead role in the battle for Qusair is widely seen as a harbinger of a broader role for the Lebanese Shia militia in Syria, having instilled momentum into a regime military that had struggled to gain ground in many parts of the country since last summer.
  • (19) Significant spontaneous gross hematuria, gastrointestinal bleeding or epistaxis appear to represent harbingers of intracranial hemorrhage and constitute indications for emergency splenectomy.
  • (20) "Perhaps the way the job is defined needs to change, and this is the harbinger of bigger changes to come."

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.