Difference Between Opportunity and Idea
Opportunity and Idea are two words in the English language that are often confused when it comes to their senses and connotations. There definitely lies some difference between the two words.
The word ‘opportunity’ refers ‘to chance’ as in the sentence ‘he was offered a business opportunity’. In this sentence the word ‘opportunity’ indicates the direction ‘chance’. Now the meaning of the sentence would be ‘he was offered a chance of business’. Or ‘he was offered a chance to do business.
In the sentence ‘the fielder missed the opportunity’, the reader understands that the batsman offered a chance of catching the ball to the fielder but the fielder missed it. Thus the word ‘opportunity’ often refers to a chance.
On the other hand the word ‘idea’ refers to a plan that is triggered by the faculty of the mind as reflected in the sentence ‘he thought of an idea to get rid of the problem’. In this sentence the word ‘idea’ refers to a plan conceived by him to get rid of a problem. This is the main difference between the two words ‘idea’ and ‘opportunity’.
It is interesting to note that the word ‘opportunity’ is often followed by the preposition ‘to’, as in the sentence ‘he was given an opportunity to show his class’. In this sentence you can see that the word ‘opportunity’ is followed by the preposition ‘to’. Similarly the word ‘idea’ is also followed by the preposition ‘to’ as seen in the sentence ‘he had an idea to send him to the village ‘. In this sentence the word ‘idea’ is followed by the preposition ‘to’. These are the differences between the two words – idea and the opportunity and they must be understood with precision.