adversarial
Britishadjective
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pertaining to or characterized by antagonism and conflict
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US term: adversary. having or involving opposing parties or interests in a legal contest
Explanation
Anything that's adversarial is full of intense disagreement and conflict. If you had an adversarial relationship with your sister, it would be extremely difficult to share a bedroom with her. Adversarial exchanges between countries don't bode well — they often lead to more intense conflicts, or possibly even war. Being adversarial means that each side is antagonistic, sharply opposed to the other, or locked into a deeply divided rivalry. In fact, this adjective is sometimes used simply to mean "hostile." Your adversary is your enemy or competitor, and both words stem from the Latin adversus, "turned against."
Vocabulary lists containing adversarial
ACT Reading Test: Words to Capture Tone, List 1
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Tone and Point of View, List 1
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Words to Capture Tone, List 1
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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.
"Adversarial AI - reverse engineering" refers to uncovering data from an AI system used to build models.
From Reuters • Jun. 5, 2023
Adversarial conversations can serve the subject getting grilled, especially if the interviewee understands what the host is up to and is willing to take a few on the chin.
From Salon • Dec. 4, 2022
Adversarial Fashion’s T-shirts, bomber jackets, hoodies, and crop tops come in two prints designed to inject junk data into license plate readers’ databases.
From Slate • Aug. 15, 2019
Adversarial images, or pictures engineered to fool machine vision software, can be used to undermine or even crash self-driving cars.
From The Verge • May 9, 2018
Adversarial relationships from the bargaining table “color the conversation about doing the hard change work.”
From Washington Times • Jun. 10, 2014
Definitions 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.
