opportunity cost
8
5.6
- noun
- /ˌɑːpərˈtjuːnɪti kɔːst/
- Specialized
:
costo de oportunidad
- Students must consider the opportunity cost of taking a part-time job instead of focusing on their studies.
- opportunity costs incurred
- opportunity cost for consumers
- paid an enormous opportunity cost
I can't commit to one thing because the opportunity cost would exclude everything else.
- I can't commit to one thing because the opportunity cost would exclude everything else.
- And we tend to neglect that opportunity cost of time.
- But the opportunity cost of that was too great.
- If we put money first, a meaningful life becomes the opportunity cost.
- The question is whether it's worth the opportunity cost that it requires to read through this dense literature.
- So you take the fight and recognize that the opportunity cost is that you lose the afternoon or the day or even the week.
- Yes, the opportunity cost has just been, has become so intensely high just because indices have moved higher.
- Then I have no opportunity cost for my media business and house hack.
Examples
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The longer it takes to get a degree, the higher the opportunity cost for students.
Academic text (1995) -
Only when the decision-maker faces the true opportunity costs of his actions do prices reflect economic reality.
Academic text (1992) -
But the opportunity cost of that was too great.
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OK, the opportunity cost of cookies has fallen.
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And OK, what's the opportunity cost for the person concerned?
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The teacher asks each student to think of his or her own example of opportunity cost for consumers.
Academic text (1993) -
The question is whether it's worth the opportunity cost that it requires to read through this dense literature.
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Some propose that tropical countries should be paid the opportunity costs of not using their forests.
Academic text (1995) -
Second, while it is easier to enter a junior college, high opportunity costs render this an unattractive alternative.
Academic text (1992) -
The economic perspective emphasizes opportunity costs and resource use, not nominal dollar amounts.
Academic text (2011)
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'opportunity' (a chance/situation for action) and 'cost' (a sacrifice or loss) together clearly signal a loss associated with a choice, so learners can infer a general idea of a ‘cost’ tied to an opportunity. However, the precise economic sense — the loss of potential gain from foregone alternatives — is an abstract, technical inference that a B1 learner may not fully derive from the constituents alone.
Etymology
Opportunity cost comes from a simple image: when you choose one opportunity, you pay a cost in 'lost chances'. So it means the value of what you 'give up' when you pick one option instead of another.