From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishportentpor‧tent /ˈpɔːtent $ ˈpɔːr-/ noun [countable] literary SIGN/GESTUREa sign or warning that something is going to happen SYN omenportent of Some people believe the raven is a portent of death.
Examples from the Corpus
portent• Consequently, the parents often seize on anything as a portent which confirms their wishes.• Their first meeting was a portent.• Were there signs and portents in the sky on the night I was born?• Biblical writings, which lie at the root of Western culture, make numerous mention of portents in the heavens.• Pundits tried not to read too much symbolic portent into the calamity.• His faith never wavered, even when Albert became so disturbed by the portents that he could not sleep and fell ill.• The portents are not what one would call auspicious.portent of• The strikes are viewed as a portent of revolution. 