'portend' is a correct and usable word in written English.
You can use it to refer to a sign or omen that something, especially something bad, will happen in the future. Example sentence: The dark clouds portended a storm was coming.
Yet even these beheadings do not portend a real revolution.
But the Sephardic-Orthodox party's tactics do seem to portend a re-emergence of the right-religious axis that underpinned Likud-led governments for much of the past three decades, since Menachem Begin first led the Likud to victory in 1977.
And though that may be welcome news for politicians such as Mr Ramsey, it could portend disaster for farmers.
But Mr Obama is said to want to let bygones be bygones.In the House some personnel changes portend a leftward shift.
This seemed to portend a bout of counter-pressure from the "moderates".
Experts who study the industry say the rapid rate at which China's tourism industry is evolving could portend good things to come.
But a cloistered career does not necessarily portend a lack of empathy with the hoi polloi.
Could that portend something more challenging for the government in 2012?
The SNS victory may portend the eclipse of the once-mighty Radicals in the next general election.Towards a two-party system?There was speculation that a DS-SNS coalition might assume power in both the Belgrade municipalities, or that the two parties could divide the two districts between them under a tacit gentleman's agreement.
That astronomical quirk should offer a modicum of comfort to those fretting about the latest Chinese economic data, which, at first glance, portend doom.In this section Rank and vile In wolves' clothing Lunar eclipse ReprintsThe numbers made it look as if China was on the brink of deflation.
Though such a trust-based system will not work for all artists, it might work with some.Another pointer is the fact that the music industry has cried wolf before; the first time the enemy was cassette tapes, which also seemed to portend the end of copyright.
