opportunistic
opportunistic Lexical Profile
opportunistic Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Exploiting immediate circumstances or opportunities to gain an advantage, often with little regard for principles, ethics, or long-term consequences.
"Critics accused the politician of making an opportunistic shift in policy just weeks before the election."
Denoting a microorganism or infection that does not ordinarily cause disease but becomes pathogenic when the host's immune system is impaired (in medicine), or denoting a species able to rapidly exploit newly available habitats or food sources (in ecology).
"Patients recovering from organ transplants are carefully monitored to prevent opportunistic fungal infections."
Word Nuance & Usage
In everyday contexts, 'opportunistic' typically carries a negative connotation of selfish calculation, whereas in biology and medicine it is used neutrally to describe organisms or infections that adapt to favorable conditions.
• Rhymes for opportunistic
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in the late 19th century from 'opportunist' plus '-ic', ultimately tracing back to Latin 'opportunus' (favorable, literally 'blowing toward the port', from 'ob-' meaning 'toward' and 'portus' meaning 'harbor').