opportunistic
Americanadjective
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adhering to a policy of opportunism; practicing opportunism.
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Pathology.
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(of a microorganism) causing disease only under certain conditions, as when a person's immune system is impaired.
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(of a disease or infection) caused by such an organism.
Pneumocystis pneumonia is an opportunistic disease that often strikes victims of AIDS.
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adjective
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of or characterized by opportunism
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med (of an infection) caused by any microorganism that is harmless to a healthy person but debilitates a person whose immune system has been weakened by disease or drug treatment
Other Word Forms
- opportunistically adverb
- unopportunistic adjective
Etymology
Origin of opportunistic
First recorded in 1890–95; opportunist + -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Multiple of these "opportunistic" accounts have already been identified by AFP as disseminators of disinformation in Mexico and the rest of Latin America.
From Barron's
The launch of the new fund was, Clark explains, opportunistic.
From MarketWatch
“We will defend ourselves vigorously against these baseless, opportunistic claims.”
But he acknowledged that the Fed’s preferred metric, core personal consumption expenditures inflation, is running near 3% and that policymakers shouldn’t switch opportunistically between price measures to justify a preferred outcome.
From Barron's
“When combined with lower capex and cash interest expense, 2026 is forecast to deliver strong free cash flow that we expect to use to pay down debt and opportunistically repurchase our common stock,” Reeg said.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
