window of opportunity
/ˌwɪndoʊ‿əv ˌɑpɚˈt(j)unəti/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.57 in modern English
36
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
6
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "U.S. officials also thought a preventive war [against the Soviet Union] would be costly, and U.S. allies would be disapproving. Thus U.S. leaders saw a fading window of opportunity, but the opportunity was not very attractive; it would not be followed by vulnerability; and it probably would not be followed by a war."
- "The EMTs had given Lolly magnesium on the ride in, Dr. Salazar said, and that had put the injury in "slo-mo." And with stroke victims, "time was brain," she said; the quicker there was treatment, the better the odds of avoiding permanent damage. "When she got here, we gave her a clot-buster called tPA. Great drug if the patient gets it in time―acts like Drano on clogged arteries―but the operative word here is if. Time-wise, there's only a small window of opportunity. When the blood supply's cut off, brain cells begin to die. I think you'd better prepare yourself for the fact that your aunt will most likely have an altered life." "Altered how?" "Too soon to tell. We'll know more in the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours.""
- "The Lord moves in mysterious ways – though not a thousandth as mysterious as those of his senior personnel from time to time – so there is no earthly possibility of predicting how long the window of opportunity enjoyed by Pope Francis is likely to be."
- "There is a narrow window of opportunity to save ourselves, and the innumerable other species that we are destroying with reckless abandon. There is still time to rid ourselves of fossil fuels, not much. We will grasp the opportunity, or the human experiment will come to an inglorious end."
Etymology
Popularized by its use by the United States Government in the 1970s in reference to the Cold War (1945–1991).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌwɪndoʊ‿əv ˌɑpɚˈt(j)unəti/
- British English: /ˌwɪndəʊ‿əv ˌɒpəˈtjuːnɪtɪ/