competitive
Americanadjective
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of, pertaining to, involving, or decided by competition.
competitive sports; a competitive examination.
-
well suited for competition; having a feature that makes for successful competition.
a competitive price.
-
having a strong desire to compete or to succeed.
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useful to a competitor; giving a competitor an advantage.
He was careful not to divulge competitive information about his invention.
adjective
-
involving or determined by rivalry
competitive sports
-
sufficiently low in price or high in quality to be successful against commercial rivals
-
relating to or characterized by an urge to compete
a competitive personality
Usage
What does competitive mean? Competitive is most commonly used to describe a person who has a strong desire to compete and win.Competitive is commonly associated with sports, but it is used in many different contexts that involve competition. It is commonly used to describe someone or something that is able to succeed against or stay even with others in the same contest or setting, as in Our new product will help us stay competitive in this market.Example: Most pro athletes are competitive by nature and always want to win no matter what they’re playing—even if it’s something as simple as a game of cards.
Other Word Forms
- anticompetitive adjective
- anticompetitively adverb
- anticompetitiveness noun
- competitively adverb
- competitiveness noun
- noncompetitive adjective
- noncompetitively adverb
- noncompetitiveness noun
- overcompetitive adjective
- overcompetitively adverb
- overcompetitiveness noun
- pseudocompetitive adjective
- pseudocompetitively adverb
- quasi-competitive adjective
- quasi-competitively adverb
- supercompetitive adjective
- uncompetitive adjective
- uncompetitively adverb
- uncompetitiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of competitive
First recorded in 1820–30; from Latin competīt(us) (past participle of competere “to meet, coincide”; compete ) + -ive
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.
“In order to stay competitive, they need to invest in their own infrastructure,” as well as in engineering talent, Santosh Rao, the head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch
It may not sound like compelling TV, but somehow it is, with family drama, competitive pressures, beautifully cinematography and fascinating insight into an exclusive world that most of us will never know.
From MarketWatch
"Luckily, we have a brilliant ecosystem in the UK which helps those artists reach global success - but it's a tough competitive environment and that's why we need the continued support of the British government."
From BBC
So far, though, investors are still willing to back domestic AI start-ups despite the emerging competitive challenges.
From Barron's
“We believe AI will provide a material increase in engagement for Doximity, where we believe the company has an underappreciated competitive moat,” they say, backing their strong buy rating on the stock.
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.
