OPPORTUNITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does opportunity mean? 

• OPPORTUNITY (noun)
  The noun OPPORTUNITY has 1 sense:

1. a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances

  Familiarity information: OPPORTUNITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OPPORTUNITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

chance; opportunity

Context example:

now is your chance

Hypernyms ("opportunity" is a kind of...):

possibility; possibleness (capability of existing or happening or being true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "opportunity"):

brass ring (a rich opportunity or a prize)

day (a period of opportunity)

clean slate; fresh start; tabula rasa (an opportunity to start over without prejudice)

audience; hearing (an opportunity to state your case and be heard)

hunting ground (a place where opportunities abound)

occasion (an opportunity to do something)

opening (opportunity especially for employment or promotion)

room (opportunity for)

say (the chance to speak)

crack; shot (a chance to do something)

street (a situation offering opportunities)

throw (a single chance or instance)

Derivation:

opportune (suitable or at a time that is suitable or advantageous especially for a particular purpose)

 Context examples 

We must guard ourselves from recognizing any positive engagement between Mr. Copperfield and our niece, until we have had an opportunity—”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

On the other hand, possibly because he divined in Buck a dangerous rival, Spitz never lost an opportunity of showing his teeth.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It was with some bitterness in my heart that I answered that I had not, that as yet I had not seen any opportunity of sending letters to anybody.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

No man makes opportunity. All the great men ever did was to know it when it came to them.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Little opportunity was given White Fang to see all this.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Yes, very; I have hardly ever an opportunity of being in one; but I am particularly fond of it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

And Mrs Musgrove took the first opportunity of being alone with Anne, to say, Oh!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The opportunity was too fair, and his feelings too impatient.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I have not had the opportunity of speaking to him this morning.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He reluctantly departs, but his wrongs weigh upon his spirit, and by-and-by when an opportunity comes to redress them, he outwits Mamma by a shrewd bargain.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)