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Definition
favorable circumstances for a particular purpose — especially the circumstance of good timing- They launched their company at an opportune time.
opportune = favorable
- With concern raised by the recent tragedy, this is an opportune time to introduce the legislation.
- It perplexed, as well as shocked her, by the irreverent inopportuneness of the occasions that brought it into vivid action.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- During the rare, inopportune social moments when I found myself squeezed between black and white, I fled to the black side,James McBride -- The Color of Water
- But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- Individuals of wiser faith, indeed, who knew that Heaven promotes its purposes without aiming at the stage-effect of what is called miraculous interposition, were inclined to see a providential hand in Roger Chillingworth's so opportune arrival.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- The attack upon the Maeterlinck school could not have been made at a more opportune moment.London, Jack -- Martin Eden
- an opportune place to make camp
- Weston's visit this morning was in another respect particularly opportune.Austen, Jane -- Emma
- What I would emphasise is, that under the head of Pride your sister is a great and opportune example to you.Dickens, Charles -- The Mystery of Edwin Drood
- Your coming to our house is, in no respect, opportune.Dostoyevsky, Fyodor -- The Idiot
- If Lady Lydiard had been actually in league with him, she could not have chosen a more opportune time for her visit.Collins, Wilkie -- My Lady's Money
- "Your entrance," she murmured, "was most opportune, besides being very welcome."Oppenheim, E. Phillips -- The Yellow Crayon
- an opportune arrival
- An opportune belt of shrubs that ran from the gate adjoining the road to a point not far from the house gave him just the cover he needed.Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville -- Uneasy Money
- He then sallied out in quest of him, and very opportunely left the lovers to enjoy a few tender minutes alone.Henry Fielding -- Tom Jones
- Melanie wasn't much given to giggling, but Pet had been, and her body betrayed me at this most inopportune moment.Stephenie Meyer -- The Host
- Time, the continual vicissitude of circumstances, and the invariable inopportunity of death, render it impossible.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The House of the Seven Gables
- And now perhaps would be an opportune moment to realize the consequences of your gallantry towards this lady.Hermann Hesse -- Steppenwolf
- Ann, musing on Violet's opportune advice, approaches Tanner; examines him humorously for a moment from toe to top; and finally delivers her opinion.George Bernard Shaw -- Man And Superman
opportune = favorable
inopportuneness = inappropriateness (bad circumstances)
inopportune = bad circumstances
inopportune = bad
opportune = timely or advantageous