OPPORTUNITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Opportunity

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/ˌɑpərtˈunəti/ Listen

noun

Opportunity n. (pl. opportunities)

Fit or convenient time or situation; a time or place permitting or favorable for the execution of a purpose; a suitable combination of conditions; suitable occasion; chance. "A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds."

Convenience of situation; fitness. (Obs.) "Hull, a town of great strength and opportunity, both to sea and land affairs."

Importunity; earnestness. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Occasion; convenience; occurrence. Opportunity, Occasion. An occasion is that which falls in our way, or presents itself in the course of events; an opportunity is a convenience or fitness of time, place, etc., for the doing of a thing. Hence, occasions often make opportunities. The occasion of sickness may give opportunity for reflection.

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Etymology of 'Opportunity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Opportunity" Quotes from Famous Books

... Gospel of St. Luke, The Acts of the Apostles, with the Pauline Epistles introduced at the several points of the history to which they are usually referred. An opportunity will thus be afforded of studying, without the interruption of comment or discussion, the continuous History of the New Testament Church as presented ...

— Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature • Various

... unjust what we have said above (Sec. 53) of a mischievous or maleficent nation. If there be any that makes an open profession of trampling justice under foot, of despising and violating the right of others,[39] whenever it finds an opportunity, the interest of human society will authorize all others to unite in order to humble and chastise it. We do not here forget the maxim established in our preliminaries, that it does not belong to nations to usurp the power of being judges of each ...

— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... watched from the turf of the roadside a pageant which the accident of an ordered and servile life afforded us; for it is true of armies that the compensation of their drudgery and miserable subjection is the continual opportunity of these large emotions; and not only by their vastness and arrangement, but by the very fact that they merge us into themselves, do armies widen the spirit of a man and give it communion with the majesty of great numbers. One becomes ...

— Hills and the Sea • H. Belloc

... strange excitement seemed growing upon him. Evidently he was trying to make up his mind to say something that he found it difficult to say. And John Silence, as I rightly judged, was waiting patiently for him to choose his own opportunity and his own way of saying it. At last he turned and faced us, squaring his great ...

— Three John Silence Stories • Algernon Blackwood

... persecutions. The Emperor Charles IV. was also favourable to them, and sought to avert their destruction wherever he could; but he dared not draw the sword of justice, and even found himself obliged to yield to the selfishness of the Bohemian nobles, who were unwilling to forego so favourable an opportunity of releasing themselves from their Jewish creditors, under favour of an imperial mandate. Duke Albert of Austria burnt and pillaged those of his cities which had persecuted the Jews—a vain and inhuman proceeding, which, moreover, ...

— The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania • Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker

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