antagonist
Americannoun
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a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.
- Synonyms:
- foe, enemy, contestant
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the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work.
Iago is the antagonist of Othello.
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Physiology. a muscle that acts in opposition to another.
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Dentistry. a tooth in one jaw that articulates during mastication or occlusion with a tooth in the opposing jaw.
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Pharmacology. a drug that counteracts the effects of another drug.
noun
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A muscle that opposes the action of another muscle, as by relaxing while the other one contracts, thereby producing smooth, coordinated movement.
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A chemical substance, such as a drug, that interferes with the physiological action of another substance, especially by combining with and blocking its nerve receptor.
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Compare agonist
Synonym Usage
See adversary.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of antagonist
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Late Latin antagōnista, from Greek antagōnistḗs. See antagonize, -ist
Explanation
An antagonist is someone who opposes someone else. In Superman comics, the antagonist is Lex Luthor, evil genius and archenemy of the superhero. The noun antagonist shows up a lot when people are talking about books, plays, or movies to mean "the bad guy," but it can also be used to talk about a real person if she acts against someone else. An antagonist is always in opposition, but she isn't always bad or mean; your opponent on the tennis court, for example, could be called your antagonist, simply because it is her priority to beat you in your tennis game.
Vocabulary lists containing antagonist
Scrooge, Grinch, and Churl: Wonderful Words for Unpleasant People
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Vocabulary about elements of Shakespearean drama
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Narrative Writing, List 3
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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:
Meanwhile, the cruel antagonist Antinous has his eyes fixed on the queen while her husband is still away.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Regardless of how you showed up, you were a brilliant antagonist for a morally flexible opportunist.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026
Finerenone is a non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist currently approved to treat CKD associated with type 2 diabetes.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 8, 2026
That sense of complexity fuels Vecna, the antagonist of “Stranger Things,” whose climactic final season sees the character, played by Jamie Campbell Bower, take on a multitude of faces — some human and some grotesque.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
It was a new chapter with a similar theme and a more intense antagonist.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Instead he uses the war as a pretext for urging modern Britain to “accelerate munitions production” in preparation for a “European War” whose antagonists remain largely unspecified.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2026
Neurocrine is betting that its experience working on CRF1 receptor antagonists could yield a better muscle-preserving treatment for obesity.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 6, 2026
Jordan also collaborated with Coogler in 2018 with Black Panther where he played Erik Killmonger, one of the most memorable antagonists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2026
And he had a running feud with Earl Weaver since the two, an unmoored umpire and a fiery manager, were antagonists in the Double-A Eastern League.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
But Hamilton’s reference to “fifteen years” turned out to be a precise estimate of their history as political antagonists.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
