- present participle of open.
opening
Americannoun
-
openings
plural
-
an act or instance of making or becoming open.
The opening of the tomb gathered much publicity.
- Antonyms:
- closing
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the act of a person or thing that opens.
Her opening of the ceremony was brilliantly handled.
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an unobstructed or unoccupied space or place.
That narrow opening between buildings is a good place to shelter from the rain.
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a void in solid matter; a gap, hole, or aperture.
There was a little opening in the door they used as a peephole.
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a tract of land thinly wooded as compared with adjoining forest tracts.
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the act of beginning; start; commencement.
Tomorrow is the opening of a new session of Congress.
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the first part or initial stage of anything.
During the opening, the store had extra late hours.
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an employment vacancy; an unfilled position or job.
There are no openings for waitstaff at the moment.
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an opportunity; chance.
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a formal or official beginning, as of a sport season or a season's sale of goods.
Today marks the opening of the deer-hunting season.
Swimsuits sold well at the summer opening.
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the first performance of a theatrical production.
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the first public showing or use of something.
It's rare for there to be so many journalists at the opening of an art exhibition.
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a celebration of the first public showing or performance or of the first use or start of something.
The new supermarket is going to give away prizes at its opening.
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Law. the statement of the case made by counsel to the court or jury preliminary to adducing evidence.
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a mode of beginning a game.
a manual of chess openings.
adjective
noun
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the act of making or becoming open
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a vacant or unobstructed space, esp one that will serve as a passageway; gap
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a tract in a forest in which trees are scattered or absent
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the first part or stage of something
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the first performance of something, esp a theatrical production
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( as modifier )
the opening night
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a specific or formal sequence of moves at the start of any of certain games, esp chess or draughts
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an opportunity or chance, esp for employment or promotion in a business concern
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law the preliminary statement made by counsel to the court or jury before adducing evidence in support of his case
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of opening
First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English; open ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. )
Explanation
An opening is an empty space. That opening in the back of your closet might lead to a secret room. A job opening, on the other hand, is an available job that could open you up to an entirely new career. There are openings in crowds you can slip through if you're in a hurry, and openings, or availabilities, in classes you really want to take. You can also use this versatile noun to mean the very first performance of a play or the initial night of an art show. Many things that come first are openings, in fact, like the opening move in a chess game or the opening scene of your novel.
Vocabulary lists containing opening
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After the opening run of songs, she hushes the audience and spends two minutes looping her voice.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
The team of attorneys general can also show jurors select evidence to support those claims at opening statements on Tuesday, weeks before most of it enters the record through witness testimony, Gonzalez Rogers ruled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Soon after opening a separate office in his native northern England he gave an interview there to Elizabeth Day, a writer, whose podcast "How to Fail" invites celebrities to reflect on mistakes they have made.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Like Yang’s, dozens of accounts we reviewed had videos focused on opening a Roth IRA or told users to give priority to exchange-traded funds in their investment portfolios.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
If you were Indian, you knew all about Sandy June’s, eventually—and if you’re Indian from around here, how to find the Bench Tree opening, a nearly invisible entrance.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
"These small windows that the world sees, the little openings here and there including secret schools for girls, are just meant to fool everybody," she laments with visible sadness.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Those openings will arrive as Cava tries to add more greenery, warmer lighting and softer seats to its locations, in an effort to bring in more consumers.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
The goals covered everything from targets for store openings to sales figures and margins to 2030, and they were increasingly challenging to meet in the current environment, according to Barton.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Near a planet's poles, however, there are funnel-shaped openings known as "magnetospheric cusps."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
Flashy, rhetorical openings were something I had to get the hang of.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
