Opportunity

How to spell opportunity

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce opportunity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does opportunity mean?

1. nounA favourable set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

Opportunity in a sentence

• The new role offered a rare opportunity to work abroad.

• She saw the quiet morning as an opportunity to finish her report.

Where does opportunity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word sails in from the Latin opportunus, meaning 'favourable' or 'timely', a word that was originally nautical in spirit. It breaks down into ob, meaning 'toward', and portus, meaning 'harbour' or 'port', so the literal idea was of a wind blowing a ship safely toward port: the right moment, the favourable condition. From opportunus came the Latin noun opportunitas, meaning 'fitness' or 'a good time for action'. English took the word through Old French opportunite in the late 1300s, keeping the sense of a favourable juncture for doing something. The same portus root survives in the everyday words 'port' and 'import', and remembering that hidden 'port' helps explain the spelling: it is opp-ort-unity, with the doubled p of the Latin prefix and a clear 'port' in the middle.

How the word is built

• op- (variant of ob-: toward)
• port (from portus: harbour, port)
• -unity (noun suffix)