What's the difference between omen and portent?

Omen


Definition:

  • (n.) An occurrence supposed to portend, or show the character of, some future event; any indication or action regarded as a foreshowing; a foreboding; a presage; an augury.
  • (v. t.) To divine or to foreshow by signs or portents; to have omens or premonitions regarding; to predict; to augur; as, to omen ill of an enterprise.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 7-OMEN was the major fluorescent biliary species, but, by 24 h, N-demethyl menogaril accounted for approximately 40% of biliary drug fluorescence.
  • (2) In this study defibrotide produced a significantly lower pressure inside the circuit compared to the control group and gave a protective effect against those pathological changes which appeared during extracorporeal circulation and that may be considered omens of a state of shock.
  • (3) In the swinging 1960s, Peck's sober style seemed a little out of place, though he appeared in a couple of flashy Hitchcockian thrillers, Mirage (1965) and Arabesque (1966), and adapted to the new Hollywood as best he could, looking rather bothered as the father of a demon in The Omen (1976).
  • (4) Myth is seen as an external representation of man's inner life; omens and the gods are viewed in this context.
  • (5) Maybe it was a bad omen for Los Angeles to hand out white towels to the fans in the stands.
  • (6) Neil Gaiman, with whom he wrote Good Omens (1991), agrees: "He's got better and better over the years – he now follows the story, not the jokes, while I think the early books followed the jokes … He makes it look easy.
  • (7) The opposition would be making a mistake if it refused to engage and they have got to hear what the regime has to say,” he said “The talks have to go ahead even if the omens are not good and it is unlikely there will be much progress.
  • (8) Some see the disintegrating Ceta deal as a bad omen for the UK, which wants to negotiate a post-Brexit free trade agreement with the EU.
  • (9) Multiple, sometimes bilateral FB are frequent and FB of a vegetable nature are of serious omen.
  • (10) It’s Godzilla versus King Kong, and the omens aren’t heartening.
  • (11) The Omen-syndrome is not a disease on its own, but a complication of congenital SCID.
  • (12) Statistical data have shown that both shock and coma are bad prognostic omens and patients presenting with these signs have less than a 50% chance leaving the hospital alive and well, even if they receive optimum emergency management.
  • (13) Kick off very shortly... 1.04am GMT More omens More omens - and they aren't good for NYRB: the Red Bulls haven't won any of the five games that Olave missed this season.
  • (14) Type I trauma includes full, detailed memories, "omens," and misperceptions.
  • (15) 7-OMEN and metabolites were measured by high performance liquid chromatography.
  • (16) 7-OMEN was the predominant fluorescent compound in urine, but four metabolites were also seen.
  • (17) Omen: You may or may not be aware that Uruguayan national team often refer to themselves as "Los Charruas", who were an indigenous people in South America.
  • (18) A good omen for the SNP's #indyref #WhitePaper launch?
  • (19) But the omens are not good: Britain has a grim history of divisiveness in education.
  • (20) It's my terrible dirty secret, a disclosure that almost always prompts an "ah, that makes sense", a stigma that brings with it a sense that somehow I am bad, a little Damien from The Omen , because I was the only one.

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.