compete
Americanverb (used without object)
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competes,
present (3rd person singular)
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competed,
past participle, past
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competing
present participle
idioms
verb
Synonym Usage
Compete, contend, contest mean to strive to outdo or excel. Compete implies having a sense of rivalry and of striving to do one's best as well as to outdo another: to compete for a prize. Contend suggests opposition or disputing as well as rivalry: to contend with an opponent, against obstacles. Contest suggests struggling to gain or hold something, as well as contending or disputing: to contest a position or ground ( in battle ); to contest a decision.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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competesimple
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competessimple
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have competedperfect
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has competedperfect
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am competingprogressive
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are competingprogressive
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is competingprogressive
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have been competingperfect progressive
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has been competingperfect progressive
Past
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competedsimple
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had competedperfect
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was competingprogressive
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were competingprogressive
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had been competingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of compete
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin competere “to meet, coincide, be fitting, suffice” ( Late Latin: “to seek, ask for”), equivalent to com- “with, together” + petere “to seek”; see com-. The Late Latin and English senses were influenced by competitor
Explanation
In sports you compete against the opposing team. At work you compete for a promotion. With siblings, you compete for everything. Compete means to vie for a goal. The urge to compete is universal and human, from kids who say "Race ya!," to great athletes who manage to achieve the impossible when faced with a worthy opponent. Some people are more inclined to compete than others. They are viewed as competitive and may be accused of turning everything into a competition.
Vocabulary lists containing compete
"Play Ball!"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It was an honor and a privilege to be here and compete with these guys, and to wear LA across your hat and across your chest,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Whatever the final price, the Roadster should compete in the upper echelon of luxury and performance cars alongside Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Scenes of romance, visions of war and domestic objects all compete for attention in the highly saturated comic-book style that was just being introduced to the broader world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
ITV welcomed the letter and said the deal would help it "compete with global streaming platforms, benefiting viewers, advertisers and the UK creative industries".
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
They would compete, for instance, with Wing Chau’s Harding Advisory.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Investors have been weighing up user engagement - the amount of time customers spend on Netflix - as it competes with platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Oil competes with AI for space in your portfolio.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
His exit comes as Uber competes for its share of a growing robotaxi market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
About 40% of Portland’s market-rate housing supply competes with affordable units, meaning that their prices are within 15% of each other, a Yardi Matrix report found in July.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
The air was still very cold and a cold night was coming, so that the brew, rising from cold water to a rolling boil, gave the good smell that competes successfully with other good smells.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
In comparison, it is 50 years since a woman even competed in a Formula 1 Grand Prix race.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
In the Ice Age, humans competed with cave lions and bears over everything from food to sleeping space.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
For South Korea, another gaming heavyweight, Park So-yeon became the first woman to represent their national team when she competed in Nagoya.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
The only tournament the golfer known as Lefty has competed in this year was LIV Golf South Africa, where he finished at 7-under par and tied for 48th place, in March.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
Of the twenty players he was to meet, he’d competed against only three: Benko, Sherwin, and Petrosian.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
That is a company projection, and the announcement does not identify the competing systems behind the comparison.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Rivals actor Dyer and his daughter, who is currently competing on Strictly Come Dancing, joined the protest in September alongside singer Becky Hill, and Surfers Against Sewage.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
The county faced no opposition to its bid for the point-in-time count and the regional application, but the city submitted competing bids for the database and matching system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
The chip maker quietly signaled a new way of thinking about the competing demands of capital returns and building its AI ecosystem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
It felt weird competing with him, so I kind of left him the entire east side of the shopping center.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
