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Necessity vs Opportunity - What's the difference?

necessity | opportunity |

As nouns the difference between necessity and opportunity

is that necessity is the quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite while opportunity is a chance for advancement, progress or profit.

necessity

Noun

(necessities)
  • The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul.}}
  • The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing need; indigence; want.
  • That which is necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.
  • *
  • Love and compassion are necessities , not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
  • That which makes an act or an event unavoidable; irresistible force; overruling power; compulsion, physical or moral; fate; fatality.
  • * 1804 , Wordsworth,
  • I stopped, and said with inly muttered voice,
    'It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:
    This neither is its courage nor its choice,
    But its necessity in being old.
  • The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.
  • (legal) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act .
  • (legal, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).
  • Synonyms

    * (state of being necessary) inevitability, certainty

    Antonyms

    * (state of being necessary) impossibility, contingency * (something indispensable) luxury

    Derived terms

    * make a virtue of necessity

    Anagrams

    *

    opportunity

    Noun

    (opportunities)
  • A chance for advancement, progress or profit.
  • Having a holiday is a great opportunity to relax.
    I wanted to become a professional, but because of my financial situation there were no opportunities .
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=October 23 , author=Becky Ashton , title=QPR 1 - 0 Chelsea , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Chelsea also struggled to keep possession as QPR harried and chased at every opportunity , giving their opponents no time on the ball.}}
  • A favorable circumstance or occasion.
  • Derived terms

    * business opportunity * the ladder of opportunity * Land of Opportunity * equal opportunity * photo opportunity * opportunity cost * when opportunity knocks

    Statistics

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