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say it: OH-puh-ning
opening is a noun and adjective meaning "an open or empty space in or between things". It carries 14 recorded senses.
a ceremony accompanying the start of some enterprise
becoming open or being made open
“the opening of his arms was the sign I was waiting for”
the first performance (as of a theatrical production)
“the opening received good critical reviews”
opportunity especially for employment or promotion
“there is an opening in the sales department”
the initial part of the introduction
“the opening established the basic theme”
a possible alternative
“bankruptcy is always a possibility”
an aperture or hole that opens into a bodily cavity
“the orifice into the aorta from the lower left chamber of the heart”
an entrance equipped with a hatch; especially a passageway between decks of a ship
a recognized sequence of moves at the beginning of a game of chess
“he memorized all the important chess openings”
chess
the first of a series of actions
first or beginning
“the memorable opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth”
“the play's opening scene”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for opening come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.