What's the difference between importune and opportune?

Importune


Definition:

  • (a.) To request or solicit, with urgency; to press with frequent, unreasonable, or troublesome application or pertinacity; hence, to tease; to irritate; to worry.
  • (a.) To import; to signify.
  • (v. i.) To require; to demand.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Carr claimed that Kammerer's sexual importuning had become threatening, and in Riverside Park on August 13 1944, he defended himself with his boy scout knife, fatally stabbing Kammerer twice in the chest.
  • (2) The proceedings of animal body waste salvage plants are-as you know-connected with intense smell importunities of the immediate environment.
  • (3) He played in Harold Pinter's A Slight Ache at the Arts theatre and went on tour as Gerald Popkiss in Ben Travers's Rookery Nook, before giving an irresistible Roland Maule, the importunate playwright from Uckfield, in Coward's Present Laughter, at the Vaudeville in 1965.
  • (4) In his recent book, Marriage of Inconvenience , Robert Brownell claims that Effie was something of an adventurer, encouraged by her importunate family to marry Ruskin to forestall her father’s bankruptcy.
  • (5) Had I not been so concerned by this importune turn of events, I might have wondered why two of my oldest friends hadn't told me they were together or invited me to their wedding, and so I resolved to work humbly for Herbert for the next 12 years.
  • (6) This paper discusses three cases of importunate fracture, with skin breakdown and exposed fracture fragments, and their treatment with tobramycin beads (and in two cases, external fixateurs).
  • (7) If we take the view that German aggression above all else started the first world war, we may conclude the US should take a hard line against contemporary Chinese importuning.
  • (8) When she was four, her father had to relocate to Pennsylvania after importuning young male members of his staff.
  • (9) Neither are the tense years of the cold war, when Finland pursued a delicate balancing act between the importunate demands of its giant neighbour and its natural attachment to the west.

Opportune


Definition:

  • (a.) Convenient; ready; hence, seasonable; timely.
  • (v. t.) To suit.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, as the same task confronts the Lib Dems, do we not now have a priceless opportunity to bring the two parties together to undertake a fundamental rethink of the way social democratic principles and policies can be made relevant to modern society.
  • (2) These results indicate that diaphragmed fenestrae are inducible structures, and provide an opportunity to study them in vitro.
  • (3) Prompt diagnosis, in which timely diagnostic laparoscopy and ultrasound evaluation of the pelvis may be helpful, provides the opportunity for prompt laparotomy with untwisting of the torsion and stabilization of the adnexa by suture and cystectomy, if possible, extirpation if not.
  • (4) Monoclonal antibodies to human thyroglobulin may offer a unique opportunity to confirm the tissue origin of cutaneous metastasis.
  • (5) We repeat our call for them to do so at the earliest opportunity, and to share those findings so that we can take any appropriate actions.” In the BBC programme the 29-year-old Rupp, who won 10,000m silver at the London 2012 Olympics behind Farah, was accused of having taken testosterone and being a regular user of the asthma drug prednisone, which is banned in competition.
  • (6) All 17 candidates are going to be participating in debate night and I think that’s a wonderful opportunity Reince Priebus Republican party officials have defended the decision to limit participation, pointing out that the chasing pack will get a chance to debate separately before the main event.
  • (7) The World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016 may be the most timely opportunity to make an honest appraisal of the effectiveness of the current system to deal with the sector’s “ new normal ” of finite resources and unlimited challenges.
  • (8) The opportunities for infection are often strong in areas of high population within a city – schools, for instance.
  • (9) This study suggests that laparoscopy has a role in adhesiolysis of mild and moderate adhesions and SLL provides further opportunity to relyse reformed adhesions in some cases.
  • (10) The intervention represented, for the intervention team, an opportunity to learn community organization and community education skills through active participation in the community.
  • (11) What happened in the past was that if smugglers are sure that European boats are patrolling very close to the Libyan coast, then traffickers use this opportunity to advertise, and say to potential irregular migrants: ‘You will be sure to reach the European coast.
  • (12) It may be better for patients if they are given opportunities to psychologically prepare themselves well in advance of the operation.
  • (13) Assessment opportunities can be identified or structured in any milieu.
  • (14) Not because we are “chippy, moronic gits” (thank you, Twitter), but because we do not see the social benefit of a two-tier education system that provides a small minority with vastly more opportunities than the rest.
  • (15) "The results present a remarkably bleak portrait of life in the UK today and the shrinking opportunities faced by the bottom third of UK society," said the head of the project, Professor David Gordon of Bristol University.
  • (16) The findings suggest that health planning could be considerably enhanced by a better understanding of patient preferences for medical care travel behavior, the origins of these preferences, and their relationship to the use of available medical care opportunities.
  • (17) Throughout the five stages, the student has ample opportunity for expression and self-evaluation in the counseling sessions that accompany each stage.
  • (18) We are looking at all opportunities and every opportunity."
  • (19) A 1-month stay in Bangladesh at the Dhaka Shishu Hospital, made possible by the Canadian Association of Paediatric Surgeons, afforded an invaluable opportunity to be involved in Pediatric Surgery in such a setting.
  • (20) Recent progress with familial adenomatous polyposis illustrates some of the opportunities for prevention of colorectal cancer which may arise with syndrome recognition in the future.