How to Use opportunity cost in a Sentence

opportunity cost

noun
  • There is a high opportunity cost to keep units off the market.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Feb. 2021
  • Still, almost all agreed there has been at least a stiff opportunity cost.
    — Robert T. Garrett, Dallas News, 11 Aug. 2019
  • The tragedy here is the opportunity cost.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 21 Jan. 2026
  • In other words, the opportunity cost of sitting on your hands was less than half as much.
    — Spencer Jakab, WSJ, 22 May 2018
  • So, there can be a huge opportunity cost in trying to time the market.
    — Michelle Singletary, Washington Post, 3 Aug. 2020
  • This is the moment where opportunity costs spike — both in time and in focus.
    — Jessica Billingsley, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2025
  • In such a case, the opportunity cost of not buying quickly is great.
    — Rohit Arora, Forbes, 1 Aug. 2022
  • The costs are great, the opportunity costs are even greater, and yet the problem remains.
    — Bruce Tulgan, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
  • Granted, there’s opportunity cost with any move, but the same is true with standing pat.
    — David Murphy, Philly.com, 13 Mar. 2018
  • The idea that everything should be looked at as an opportunity cost?
    — Jane Thier, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2023
  • The Sixers would need to weigh the opportunity cost of that, though.
    — Bryan Toporek, Forbes, 14 May 2022
  • The opportunity cost could go to projects that make millions of dollars.
    — Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 19 Apr. 2022
  • And as time has gone by, the opportunity cost keeps showing up on the offensive line.
    — Nate Atkins, New York Times, 15 June 2026
  • The opportunity cost is too high to ignore.
    — Luke Xie, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Oct. 2025
  • But all big moves hold an element of opportunity cost.
    — Nate Atkins, New York Times, 15 June 2026
  • Of course, travelers need to weigh the risks and opportunity costs of doing so.
    — Greg Iacurci, CNBC, 8 Apr. 2026
  • And then there is the opportunity cost of not being able to put those resources to another use.
    — Mark Humphery-Jenner, Slate Magazine, 27 Feb. 2017
  • And there is also an opportunity cost for what else could be done with that money over the time of ownership.
    — Anna Bahney, CNN, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Even his own brother warned him about the opportunity cost of pursuing a venture on the side.
    — Shikhar Sachdev, thehustle.co, 21 Feb. 2025
  • But the huge scale of opportunity costs already endured offers some hints.
    — Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Feb. 2020
  • Good economists should not flinch from the fact that saving lives does have an opportunity cost in scarce dollars.
    — James Broughel, Forbes.com, 27 Jan. 2026
  • The problem with taking a quarterback in the first few rounds is the opportunity cost.
    — Adam Ronis, SI.com, 12 Aug. 2019
  • What are the opportunity costs while studying?
    — Rachel Wells, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025
  • This means that skills are valued at the opportunity cost of compute required to replicate them.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 4 Apr. 2026
  • To them, ignoring opportunity cost—as the 3 percenters do—is a much worse sin.
    — James Broughel, Forbes, 27 Sep. 2021
  • The key question in the Jackson deal is opportunity cost.
    — Sam Vecenie, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
  • The station’s dizzying sticker price has meant not just balance sheet costs but opportunity costs.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 31 Oct. 2025
  • After all, there's an opportunity cost to pre-paying tax today.
    — Kristin McKenna, Forbes.com, 25 Aug. 2025
  • The opportunity cost is huge, not to mention the cost to the presidency.
    — Gloria Borger, CNN, 23 Sep. 2021
  • Where the opportunity cost of saying yes is higher than the benefit of the event itself.
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes, 18 Apr. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'opportunity cost.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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