How to use occasion in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Occasion means a favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance. Example: “At this point, she seized the occasion to make her own observation.”

Examples of occasion by meaning

nounA favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance.

At this point, she seized the occasion to make her own observation.

nounThe time when something happens.

On this occasion, I'm going to decline your offer, but next time I might agree.
He spoke with supreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 203

nounAn occurrence or state of affairs which causes some event or reaction; a motive or reason.

I had no occasion to feel offended, however.

nounA particular happening; an instance or time when something occurred.

I could think of two separate occasions when she had deliberately lied to me.
a momentous occasion in the history of South Africa
In the last two decades, North Korea has on various occasions conducted highly provocative missile and nuclear tests and promised to turn Seoul into a sea of fire.2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company...

nounA need; requirement, necessity.

I have no occasion for firearms.

nounA special event or function.

Having people round for dinner was always quite an occasion at our house.

verbTo cause; to produce; to induce.

It is seen that the mental changes are occasioned by a change of polarity.
The new tunnel has been associated with, but not actually occasioned by, the electrification of the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath lines of the former L.N.E.R., initiated before the war.1951 July, “New Pennine Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 432

More sentences with occasion

No, not that one. That's my good shirt I only wear for special occasions.From the entry good
She wore a racy dress that was just barely appropriate for the occasion.From the entry racy
I only wear high heels on formal occasions; otherwise, I prefer sensible shoes.From the entry sensible
I’ve been saving an excellent Brazilian champagne for a special occasion.From the entry champagne
To prepare for leading a devotional, select a theme appropriate to the occasion.From the entry devotional
She finally caught the mood of the occasion.From the entry catch
Occasions that reinforce the ties of kindred.From the entry tie
They marked the occasion with a release of butterflies.From the entry release
They followed the tradition of lighting candles for special occasions.From the entry tradition
He was dressed too formally for the occasion.From the entry formally
On rare occasions French-Canadian separatists have resorted to violence.From the entry separatist
His rumbling voice suited the solemn occasion.From the entry rumbling
The scholar thinks the quote and the parable were spoken on different occasions and only by accident were brought together here.From the entry by accident
His unemotionality was great when he wanted a poker face but prevented him from truly enjoying the happy occasions of life.From the entry unemotionality
On some occasions standing ovations may be given to political leaders as a matter of course, rather than as a special honour.From the entry matter of course
Corks remain prevalent, but nowadays the wine industry also offers plenty of screw caps, too, for occasions that warrant them or customers who prefer them.From the entry screw cap
Upon the occasion of his first publication he quit his day job, only to find that Grub Street wasn't lined with manors and villas but hovels and slums.From the entry Grub Street
The forfeitability of the claimant’s vehicle was likely due to the fact that she, the claimant, had sold illegal narcotics from the vehicle on three separate occasions.From the entry forfeitability
There may be an occasion to do so two years hence.2024, Marshall H. Tanick, “Diversity on the bench should not only be about gender and race”, in MinnPost. From the entry hence
Lawyers for Hirst accepted that his works had on occasion “been made to look older or distressed”.2024 March 19, Maeve McClenaghan, “Damien Hirst formaldehyde animal works dated to 1990s were made in 2017”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry distressed
Hrmitt, my 3rd conlang, as I've said on multiple occasions, started out as a jokelang.2024 October 9, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@qfbox.info>, “Re: The main purpose of a conlang? (was: Let's quickly follow the construction of the…. From the entry jokelang
A GFT is a surprise, limited edition, gift-wrapped NFTs designed to delight – on any occasion.2022 January 27, “Atari is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary with giftable NFTs”, in New Musical Express. From the entry GFT
The term has more of a nuance of marking or commemorating an important occasion.2021 July 24, Tatsuro Sugiura, “Emperor in bind over use of ‘celebrate’ for Tokyo Olympiad”, in The Asahi Shimbun, Osaka: The Asahi…. From the entry olympiad
There were fewer occasions when additional services were needed to cater for large-scale cultural and sporting events.2021 September 22, Industry Insider, “A new way of thinking”, in RAIL, number 940, page 92. From the entry out-of-course
We have observed on several occasions that the expressive resources afforded by superplurals would have useful applications.2021, Salvatore Florio, Øystein Linnebo, The Many and the One: A Philosophical Study of Plural Logic, Oxford University Press, page 174. From the entry superpluralism
I’m told, Minister Beria did, on occasion, like to perform Mingrelian peasant songs on the balalaika.2020, Ben Creed, City of Ghosts, London: Welbeck Publishing, →ISBN, page 264. From the entry Mingrelian
In time, Disneybounders began wearing their costume-related dress to work and social occasions beyond the theme parks.2019, Therèsa M. Winge, Costuming Cosplay: Dressing the Imagination, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry DisneyBounder
Some of the single-citation terms appeared to be nonce formations, that is, created for the occasion.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 16. From the entry nonce
Zefir was my favorite childhood dessert; a sweet treat my mother bought for us on special occasions.2018, Tatyana Nesteruk, “Chocolate Raspberry Zefir Cake”, in The European Cake Cookbook: Discover a New World of Decadence from the…. From the entry zefir

Meaning of occasion

noun A favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance.
noun The time when something happens.
noun An occurrence or state of affairs which causes some event or reaction; a motive or reason.

Full definition of occasion

Questions about occasion in a sentence

How do you use occasion in a sentence?: Occasion is used as a noun and verb. For example: “At this point, she seized the occasion to make her own observation.”
What is a short sentence with occasion?: “I have no occasion for firearms.”
What does occasion mean?: Occasion means a favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance.

Adapted from Wiktionary: occasion (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use occasion in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/occasion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.