Synonyms

compete

American

[kuhm-peet] / kəmˈpit /

verb (used without object)

competed, competing

to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.; engage in a contest; vie: to compete in business.

to compete in a race;
to compete in business.

Synonyms:

struggle

idioms

cannot/can't compete with, to not be, by a great degree, as good or capable as (someone or something else).

These roses are lovely, but they can’t compete with the ones we grew back home in Ecuador.

compete British

/ kəmˈpiːt /

verb

to contend (against) for profit, an award, athletic supremacy, etc; engage in a contest (with)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

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

competer noun
competingly adverb
noncompeting adjective
outcompete verb (used with object)

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”; com-. The Late Latin and English senses were influenced by competitor

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.

I have to fight for it — I’m up against all the big publishing houses, so it’s very hard to compete.

From Los Angeles Times

In what was billed as a golden chance to at least compete in this country, the tourists never recovered from an astonishing implosion to lose the first Test in Perth in two days.

From BBC

But the company says it later struggled to compete with the street cred of brands such as Adidas and Nike.

From Barron's

But analysts said profits were unlikely any time soon from either company -- the first two IPOs among China's so-called "six tigers", generative AI providers competing with tech giants such as Alibaba and ByteDance.

From Barron's

"I'm very excited to join the sprinting field and compete in the inaugural Enhanced Games," Prescod said in the statement.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023