Meaning & use
wasted opportunity
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A chance to do something good that was not used, so the benefit was lost.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a wasted opportunity' or 'two wasted opportunities'.
Patterns
- a wasted opportunity for someone
- a wasted opportunity to do something
The team had a great chance to win, but it was a wasted opportunity.
Not studying abroad was a wasted opportunity for her.
The meeting was a wasted opportunity to solve the problem.
Word forms
| plural | wasted opportunities |
|---|
Common combinations
- a wasted opportunity for
- The job fair was a wasted opportunity for students who didn't attend.
- a wasted opportunity to
- It was a wasted opportunity to learn from an expert.
- another wasted opportunity
- The team saw another wasted opportunity when the goal was disallowed.
- a complete wasted opportunity
- The whole trip was a complete wasted opportunity because we stayed in the hotel.
Synonyms and how they differ
- missed chance
- Similar, but 'missed chance' is more informal and often used for small everyday situations.
- lost opportunity
- Very close, but 'lost opportunity' often suggests the chance is gone forever and cannot be recovered.
Opposites
Word family
- waste verb
- To use something badly or not use it at all.
- opportunity noun
- A situation that makes it possible to do something.
Commonly confused: wasted opportunity or missed opportunity?
wasted opportunity vs missed opportunity
'Missed opportunity' focuses on the fact that you did not take the chance; 'wasted opportunity' emphasizes that the chance existed but you used it badly or not at all.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'wasted opportunity' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The phrase is countable, so it needs 'a' before it: 'a wasted opportunity'. Option 1 is missing 'an' or 'a', option 2 uses the verb 'wasted' with an infinitive incorrectly, and option 3 uses 'wasted opportunity' as a description of a person, which is not the meaning here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wasted opportunity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.