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opinion

uh-PIN-yuhn/əˈpɪnjən/

Pluralopinions

7 meanings of opinion

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  1. 1
    viewnouncountable
    A belief, judgment, or view a person forms about a topic, issue, person, or thing, through reasoning that may be objective or subjective.

    She kept her opinion to herself during the heated debate.

    Strong opinions about the new policy split the committee down the middle.

    UsageIn my opinion marks a personal view. You have an opinion about or on something and ask someone for theirs.

    Similarview

  2. 2
    group viewnoununcountable
    The combined views of people generally, or of a particular group, about a matter, considered as a whole.

    Opinion among economists remains divided on whether the tax cut will help.

    Over the past decade, scientific opinion has swung firmly behind the new treatment.

    UsageOften with a group word: public opinion, scientific opinion, opinion among economists. Opinion is divided or swings behind something.

    Similarsentiment

  3. 3
    expert rulingnouncountable
    A formal statement of judgment or advice from a judge, court, doctor or other expert, such as a court's written decision or an Advocate General's advice to the EU Court of Justice.

    The court issued its opinion on the constitutional question last week.

    She sought a specialist's opinion before agreeing to the treatment.

    UsageA court issues or delivers an opinion. Patients get a second opinion: a check by another doctor.

    Similarjudgment, ruling, assessment

  4. 4
    judgment of worthnouncountable
    The judgment or sentiment the mind forms about people or things; an estimation of their worth.

    She holds a low opinion of politicians in general.

    His opinion of the new manager improved over time.

    UsageUsually with an adjective and of: a high opinion of someone, a low opinion of politicians.

    Similarimpression, estimation, assessment

    Note

    Where the everyday sense is a view about anything, this one is an assessment of someone's worth. In Macbeth, Shakespeare's hero has bought "golden opinions from all sorts of people." Robert South writes of a friend's claim to "the good opinion" of another.

Less common meanings

  1. 5
    verbarchaictransitive
    To hold or state something as one's view.
    Note

    A verb made straight from the noun, taking a direct object. Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1642) speaks of philosophers who "opinioned the world's destruction by fire." In The Garden of Cyrus (1658) he slips in "as some opinion." It inflects regularly: opinions, opinioning, opinioned. Today it reads as deliberate period color; in plain modern prose, use think, hold or be of the opinion that.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

  2. 6
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    Stubborn insistence on one's own belief or impression; opinionatedness and conceit.
    Note

    The word could once name a fault rather than a view: holding to one's beliefs too stubbornly, with conceit to match. In Love's Labour's Lost, written around 1595–96, Shakespeare's curate praises talk that was "learned without opinion," meaning learning worn without arrogance. The sense is obsolete. When this sense turns up in older texts, read it as conceit or opinionatedness rather than as a belief someone holds.

  3. 7
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    Favorable regard; the reputation, fame, or public esteem in which a person or thing is held.
    Note

    Here opinion is what others think of you, and specifically something good: a reputation that can be lost, redeemed or won. Shakespeare's Henry IV speaks of having "redeemed thy lost opinion." Milton in 1670 says a deed "gain'd Agricola much opinion"; notice the uncountable much. The sense is obsolete and survives only in older texts. In your own writing, reputation or esteem does the same work.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Opinion historically meant favorable estimation, reputation or public esteem. en.wiktionary.org
    • King Henry IV says "redeemed thy lost opinion" to Prince Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, scene 4. folger.edu
    • The Milton quotation appears in The History of Britain, first published in 1670. en.wikipedia.org
    • Milton's exact wording includes "gain'd Agricola much opinion," with opinion used uncountably after much. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of opinion apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This word came into Middle English from Old French, from Latin opīniō, from the verb opīnor ('to opine'). It displaced the native Old English word wēna.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts