Legal Writing

Event and Occasion

By Maeve Maddox

Karen writes:

Wondering if you can do a post on the use of ‘event’ and ‘occasion’ – are they interchangeable terms, or does one imply more significance than the other?

To me, “an occasion” is more special than “an event.”

The twins’ birthday is always a special occasion for the family.

However, many speakers would use the word event in this example.

The words are so close in meaning and have so many different applications that it is difficult to formulate a hard and fast distinction between them. Wikipedia lists 20 different senses for event: nine general meanings and eleven specialized meanings.

Context is everything.

The word event is common in writing about sports and entertainment.

Fox and DirecTV hosting charity event for family of the late Will Flannery

Apple announces special event for January 27

A rematch of top rivals Darrion Caldwell and Brent Metcalf is the Main Event of a seven-match card of wrestling bouts?

Conventions and conferences are “events.” Graduations and jazz festivals are “events.” Plain old parties are often called “events.”

One distinction that can be drawn is that occasion carries the sense of a falling together of events to produce an opportunity for something.

Let me take the occasion of this interview as the opportunity to question one of the received ideas about contemporary poetry.

An event, on the other hand, is usually scheduled. Indeed, an event may be scheduled to celebrate an occasion:

A conference will be held ? on the occasion of Richard Varga’s 80th birthday

The expression “on occasion” means “from time to time”:

On occasion I have misspoken about my service and I regret that and I take full responsibility.”

An “occasional poem” is a poem written to celebrate a special occasion such as a coronation or a royal birthday.

Full post as published by Daily Writing Tips on May 27, 2010 (boomark / email).