rivalry
Americannoun
-
rivalries
plural
-
the action, position, or relation of a rival or rivals; competition.
rivalry between Yale and Harvard.
- Synonyms:
- jealousy, antagonism, opposition
-
an instance of this.
noun
-
the act of rivalling; competition
-
the state of being a rival or rivals
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of rivalry
Explanation
Rivalry is the act of competing for the same thing against another person. Your rivalry with your older sister is amusing to the family but very annoying to her. Rivalry comes from the noun rival, the person you compete against. Often a rivalry starts when people want the same reward — and their talents are just about equal. Your rivalry for the lead in the play at the local theater isn't between you and George Clooney — it's between you and the other guy who also had a great audition.
Vocabulary lists containing rivalry
The Outsiders
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Olympics Vocabulary for Champions
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Content Summary 5.1: Causes of the Atlantic Revolutions
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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:
There was no drama at the obligatory face-off, despite the fierce rivalry that has developed between them, and two-time world champion Dubois was quick to leave the stage afterwards.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
What started as a little friendly rivalry soon turned into a nationwide search for record-breaking crayfish.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Death Row Records, run at the time by Marion “Suge” Knight, was in a cross-country rivalry with Bad Boy Records, run by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Shakur was a key figure in a hip-hop rivalry pitting the US East Coast against the West Coast.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
There was an old and well-established rivalry between him and the Buder.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
Netflix is developing “God Mode,” described as a corporate thriller about rivalries and power struggles among Silicon Valley’s elite, starring Rosamund Pike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
A conference anchored in deep regional ties, historic rivalries and a century of shared traditions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Theirs is among the most storied and heated rivalries in Corporate America, exacerbated by their proximity and sheer longevity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
To understand how the case became so mythologised, you have to go back to rivalries that grew larger than the men at its centre.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
It would be reasonable to suppose that Richard Owen’s petty rivalries marked the low point of nineteenth-century paleontology, but in fact worse was to come, this time from overseas.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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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.
