What's the difference between momentous and portentous?

Momentous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of moment or consequence; very important; weighty; as, a momentous decision; momentous affairs.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) At the moment we are, if anything, slightly lagging."
  • (2) Jonker kept sticking his nose in the corner and not really cooperating, but then came a moment of stillness.
  • (3) A triphasic pattern was evident for the neck moments including a small phase which represented a seating of the headform on the nodding blocks of the uppermost ATD neck segment, and two larger phases of opposite polarity which represented the motion of the head relative to the trunk during the first 350 ms after impact.
  • (4) Moments later, Strauss introduces the bold human character with an energetic, upwards melody which he titles "the climb" in the score.
  • (5) It is a moment to be grateful for what remains of Labour's hard left: an amendment to scrap the cap was at least tabled by John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn but stood no chance.
  • (6) I just know that in that moment he’s not in condition to carry on in the game.
  • (7) It is an intriguing moment: the new culture secretary, Sajid Javid, who was brought in to replace Maria Miller last month, is something of an unknown quantity.
  • (8) Such a science puts men in a couple of scientific laws and suppresses the moment of active doing (accepting or refusing) as a sufficient preassumption of reality.
  • (9) Provided that adequate reflection is given and the appropriate moment chosen, it is well tolerated and provides all the necessary information.
  • (10) At the moment the MPA makes the appointments in consultation with the Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson.
  • (11) Moments later, explosive charges blasted free two tungsten blocks, to shift the balance of the probe so it could fly itself to a prearranged landing spot .
  • (12) Conservative commentators responded with fury to what they believed was inappropriate meddling at a crucial moment in the town hall debate.
  • (13) "At the moment there are about 1,600 criminal justice firms, and they all have a contract with the lord chancellor.
  • (14) But at least one customer signalled that America's gun lobby might be on the cusp of a moment of introspection.
  • (15) One of the things Yang has said he wants to investigate is: "This state we're in ... a moment when we have to negotiate our past while inventing our present."
  • (16) At the moment they’re playing some of the best football I’ve seen from any Tottenham team for many, many years.
  • (17) The history of events at the end of 2010, from the moment on 4 November when Cable called in the regulators, shows how relentlessly James Murdoch and his PR man Frédéric Michel lobbied and berated the politicians who were trying to stand in their way.
  • (18) Can somebody who is not a billionaire, who stands for working families, actually win an election into which billionaires are pouring millions of dollars?” Naming prominent and controversial rightwing donors, he said: “It is not just Hillary, it is the Koch brothers, it is Sheldon Adelson.” Stephanopoulos seized the moment, asking: “Are you lumping her in with them?” Choosing to refer to the 2010 supreme court decision that removed limits on corporate political donations, rather than address the question directly, Sanders replied: “What I am saying is that I get very frightened about the future of American democracy when this becomes a battle between billionaires.
  • (19) It is that beautiful moment when the original Metamorphosis is destroyed so that it can be refashioned for a global community of readers in dire need of new forms of storytelling.
  • (20) It came in a mix of joy and sorrow and brilliance under pressure, with one of the most remarkable things you will ever see on a basketball court in the biggest moment.

Portentous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreshadowing, esp. foreshadowing ill; ominous.
  • (a.) Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a beast of portentous size.

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.