opportunist

noun

op·por·tun·ist | \ ˌä-pər-ˈtü-nist

, -ˈtyü-\

Definition of opportunist

: one that is opportunistic or that practices opportunism a slick, shady, amoral opportunist who has only one desire: to get through life without a day of labor— Allan Ulrich Most burglars are opportunists.

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Examples of opportunist in a Sentence

a political opportunist who changed his health-care plan to win the election ever the opportunist, she immediately set about becoming the incoming administrator's new best friend

Recent Examples on the Web

This view of Javanka as cynical opportunists echoes throughout the book, but nowhere more memorably than in the chapter dealing with the fallout from Trump’s response to the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, VA in August of 2017. — Emma Dibdin, Town & Country, "Does Ivanka Trump Really Want to Be President Someday?," 19 Mar. 2019 These self-interested opportunists have support from ideologues in places like the Vatican, which has been an advocate of appeasing Mr. Maduro. — Mary Anastasia O’grady, WSJ, "Power and Money in Venezuela," 10 Feb. 2019 And historically, in those kinds of conditions, that's ripe for opportunists who try to exploit America's history and division, racial, ethnic, religious. — Fox News, "Woman who knew Kavanaugh in high school speaks out," 14 Sep. 2018 The mosquitoes of the London Underground, for instance, have become non-hibernating, year-round opportunists, making commuters their preferred food source and becoming genetically distinct from their above-ground relatives. — Jennie Erin Smith, WSJ, "Living for the City," 13 Apr. 2018 Go after your opportunity and be aggressive, but don’t pester or be an opportunist. — Amber Kallor, Allure, "How Frankie Boyd Went From Being a M.A.C. Counter Cashier to an A-List Makeup Artist," 30 July 2018 The amateur hunters and the independent and commercial hunters aren’t all venal, money-grubbing opportunists. — Rachel Becker, The Verge, "A dinosaur obsession leads to stolen fossils and prison time in this new book," 15 Oct. 2018 Munyan and Barrale know that critics see Daniels as a brazen opportunist capitalizing on her fifteen minutes of fame. — Amy Chozick, Vogue, "Stormy Daniels Isn’t Backing Down," 28 Aug. 2018 The wealthy media owner is often presented as either a philanthropist stepping in to save a legacy brand from oblivion, or as an opportunist trying to launder their reputation and influence the political conversation in their favor. — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, "The Other Side of Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post," 27 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'opportunist.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.