1
as in chameleon
a person who dexterously and expediently changes or adopts opinions
ever the opportunist, she immediately set about becoming the incoming administrator's new best friend
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2
as in bottom-feeder
one who does things only for his own benefit and with little regard for right and wrong
an opportunist who makes friends and then drops them as soon as they aren't useful anymore
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of opportunist
The film’s most powerful scene arrives when Turdugul’s grandmother refuses to sell her property to routine opportunists and laments about a vanishing village that has been slipping through her fingers — an occasion Akynbekov and Kubat approach with an unobtrusive, documentarian aesthetic.
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Tomris Laffly, Variety, 23 Nov. 2025
Republicans saw him as an exploiter of Bush’s insecurities and an opportunist who amassed power at the expense of Congress.
—Philip Elliott, Time, 20 Nov. 2025
As played with bravado by Macfadyen, the unhinged Guiteau comes across as a stop-at-nothing opportunist consumed by his overinflated vision of his own significance and purpose.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 6 Nov. 2025
Malek, wild-eyed as ever, portrays Kelley as an overconfident opportunist who is more than willing to cross lines to gain Goering’s trust.
—Lindsey Bahr, Boston Herald, 6 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for opportunist
Recent Examples of Synonyms for opportunist
Noun
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Black trousers are a true wardrobe chameleon, equally at home with bold red outerwear, bohemian layers, or even a bit of leopard print.—
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Still, the chameleon actor returned to his TV roots to executive produce and star on Black-ish, Mixed-ish, and Grown-ish as Pops, and came back to Broadway as Donny in the 2022 revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo.—
Noun
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The Mavs dwell among the Western Conference’s bottom-feeders, but no team in either conference presents the sheer volume of storylines as the outfit from Texas’ largest city.—
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For nearly the first two decades of their existence, the New Orleans Saints were NFL bottom-feeders.—
Noun
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Authorities in California confirmed last week that 55-year-old Erica Fox died from a shark attack.—
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Thirty sharks were added, too, before the exhibit opened to the public in April 2003.—
Noun
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Thus the self-seekers and the doctrinaires were drawn together into an alliance to maintain the status quo, and all its abuses and inequalities were made sacrosanct.—
Noun
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The former vice-president’s characterizations of peers such as Pete Buttigieg (talented but too gay for the America to accept as her running mate), and Josh Shapiro (an egoist) are not particularly juicy, but have already caused bad blood.—
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His characters come off as feisty egoists who enjoy sparring and comparing the size of their ambitions.—
Noun
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Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein’s latest collaboration is a spiritual sequel to their 2019 masterpiece, once again putting an undeniably charming schemer through a nightmarish gauntlet of trials and tribulations to chase an impossible dream.—
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In various shadows of the things that have been, Chris Hoch plays young Ebenezer’s father as an abusive drunk, a schemer who saddled the family with debt.—
Cite this Entry
“Opportunist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/opportunist. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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