What's the difference between ominous and portent?

Ominous


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Indeed, his reaction to the nationwide citizens' revolt reveals ominous parallels with another autocratic leader who has recently found himself in a tight spot: Vladimir Putin.
  • (2) As with other malignant salivary gland tumors, advanced stage and pain as a presenting symptom were ominous findings.
  • (3) We reached the following conclusions: The incidence of operative phrenic nerve injury in infants undergoing lateral thoracotomy, particularly for Blalock-Taussig shunt, is higher than generally appreciated; plication is a safe procedure as performed by either an abdominal or thoracic approach; failure to achieve extubation within a week of plication is an ominous prognostic sign; mortality in patients with eventration in the presence of major associated conditions may be high despite plication.
  • (4) A decrease of the activities of all dehydrogenases examined appeared to be prognostically ominous, correlating with a score of 7 or higher.
  • (5) In our report we document that myelofibrosis associated with breast cancer is not an ominous sign.
  • (6) In a comment likely to be seen as ominous at the White House, Comey said the inquiry was “very complex and there is no way for me to give you a timetable as to when it will be done”.
  • (7) Ominous fetal heart rate patterns were less common in hypertensive women without these risk factors; still the significant differences in comparison with normotensive women remained.
  • (8) The presence of liquid neutral fat without an intra-articular fracture is an ominous sign of a significant soft tissue injury.
  • (9) The tracings were scored blindly according to severity of abnormal patterns, and the infants were grouped into ominous, intermediate, and normal scores.
  • (10) The point made here is that loss of biodiversity should be as ominous for microbiologists and biotechnologists as it is to conservationists.
  • (11) In 1997, the Miami Fusion entered the league and ominously played in the old home of the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers (a converted high school stadium).
  • (12) Starting small, with oddly tweaked vocal samples and ominous-sounding piano, the first half is brilliantly brooding, to the point where the first chorus of “I love these streets but they weren’t meant for me to walk” arrives at the 45-second mark just as all the music drops away completely.
  • (13) It’s a seismic moment for the industry and particularly the big European manufacturers who have done a lot of work on diesel: technologically, they have they made the wrong bet.” Some analysts believe fears of brand damage in Europe are overstated but Bailey says: “In the US it’s very different: VW have killed their diesel market and it has left them in a very difficult position.” For British manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, the timing of VW’s woes was ominous, as it unveiled two new diesels in America.
  • (14) The finding of involvement of para-aortic lymph nodes in patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate has been considered so ominous that further therapy has often only been palliative.
  • (15) It is ominous because it suggests that the monitors will not be given free access as was hoped.
  • (16) Both clear-cut benign and transitional sebaceous neoplasms should also be recognized as having the potential to undergo an ominous clinical regrowth upon subtotal excision and a complete squamous transformation.
  • (17) She writes: It used to be that evil finance plots at least had the dignity to be conducted in back rooms, with much mustache-twirling and fondling of watch fobs as well as hearty, if ominous laughs.
  • (18) Even more ominous is the fragmentation of the global news agenda, and with it public opinion, into clear propaganda blocs.
  • (19) Having done battle with the Walkie-Scorchie "fryscraper" by Rafael Viñoly – who, somewhat ominously, is also responsible for the Battersea power station masterplan – at least London should be ready for whatever Gehry decides to throw at it.
  • (20) But I think the signs from here on are more ominous for Cameron.

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.