rival
Americannoun
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rivals
plural
-
a person who is competing for the same object or goal as another, or who tries to equal or outdo another; competitor.
- Synonyms:
- antagonist, adversary, emulator, opponent
- Antonyms:
- ally
-
a person or thing that is in a position to dispute another's preeminence or superiority.
a stadium without a rival.
-
Obsolete. a companion in duty.
adjective
verb (used with object)
-
rivals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rivaled,
past participle, past
-
rivalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
rivaling,
present participle
-
rivalling
present participle (especially British)
verb (used without object)
-
rivals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
rivaled,
past participle, past
-
rivalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
rivaling,
present participle
-
rivalling
present participle (especially British)
noun
-
-
a person, organization, team, etc, that competes with another for the same object or in the same field
-
( as modifier )
rival suitors
a rival company
-
-
a person or thing that is considered the equal of another or others
she is without rival in the field of economics
verb
-
to be the equal or near equal of
an empire that rivalled Rome
-
to try to equal or surpass; compete with in rivalry
Synonym Usage
See opponent.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
nonrivalnoun
-
outrivalverb (used with object)
-
rivallessadjective
-
unrivalingadjective
-
unrivallingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rivalsimple
-
rivalssimple
-
have rivaledperfect
-
have rivalledperfect
-
has rivaledperfect
-
has rivalledperfect
-
am rivalingprogressive
-
am rivallingprogressive
-
are rivalingprogressive
-
are rivallingprogressive
-
is rivalingprogressive
-
is rivallingprogressive
-
have been rivalingperfect progressive
-
have been rivallingperfect progressive
-
has been rivalingperfect progressive
-
has been rivallingperfect progressive
Past
-
rivaledsimple
-
rivalledsimple
-
had rivaledperfect
-
had rivalledperfect
-
was rivalingprogressive
-
was rivallingprogressive
-
were rivalingprogressive
-
were rivallingprogressive
-
had been rivalingperfect progressive
-
had been rivallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rival
First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin rīvālis, originally, “one who uses a stream in common with another,” equivalent to rīv(us) “stream” + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
A rival is a competitor or contender that you want to defeat, whether in an actual competition or for another goal. It may be a tennis rival or a rival for your true love’s affections. There are all types of rivals, but they tend to show up a lot in sports. For example, in college football, the Army and Navy have been rivals since their first meeting in 1890. Something that is able to rival something else is seen as comparable to it in quality, and something that is said to be “without rival” is unmatched, or better than everything else.
Vocabulary lists containing rival
Beowulf vocabulary
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"The Sporting Spirit"
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Purple Hibiscus
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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:
At the time, rival bidders expressed concern over the unusual financing, but state insurance regulators cleared the deal and Major League Baseball approved it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Her diaristic approach to songwriting also gave birth to hits like Jolene – written about a red-headed love rival – and All I Can Do, a heartfelt declaration of love to her husband, Carl Dean.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Washington’s main strategic rival has long served as arguably the most important clearinghouse for Shahed components, including engine parts, servomotors and gyroscopes, according to current and former U.S. officials and analysts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Nvidia earnings are Wednesday but rival Advanced Micro Devices is the chip maker that could capitalize on booming CPU demand.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
It was important to keep the chapel up to date, because Jordan College had no rival, either in Europe or in New France, as a center of experimental theology.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
The settlement also includes solutions that would only kick in if Meta’s rivals such as YouTube and TikTok also implemented similar measures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Then, in June, in came another big offer from Atleti's city rivals, Real Madrid.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
It said it increased promotions to compete with rivals, who are lowering prices to cope with weaker demand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Samsung Electronics stock had its worst day in three weeks on Monday as investors reacted to its shareholder-return plan, souring the mood for other memory-chip making rivals.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
It was also the namesake of the Bandits’ biggest rivals, the Johnston Jupiters.
From "The Missing Mitt (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #2)" by Franklin W. Dixon
The get-rich ethos that defines our time may be only rivaled by our perilously tantalizing obsession with vengeance.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026
Osgood’s popularity was rivaled only by ABC Radio personality Paul Harvey.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
The extent to which he has reshaped U.S. politics and society is rivaled by few of his predecessors; presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2026
One of the industry’s biggest companies gave most of its very young patients an amount of therapy that rivaled a typical adult workweek.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
Music wafted through the dusk—the trill and wail of a klezmer’s violin rivaled by a woman fiddling a lively Irish jig.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Scientists believe it rivalled the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex in size, measuring around 40 feet long with a 20-inch sword-like crest on its head.
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
She delivered an opening monologue that rivalled the Globe greats - Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler - roasting the A-list celebrities in the room.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2026
The Benfica academy product, who has set up nine goals in all competitions this season, has displayed a technical ease in slicing through defences and evading pressure only rivalled by his compatriot.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2025
At the height of her fame in the 1950s and 1960s, Lollobrigida, who was known simply as "La Lollo," was an internationally recognised epitome of Italian post-war cinema, rivalled only by Sophia Loren.
From Reuters ● Jan. 16, 2023
It never quite rivalled those institutions, but this was still a significant step in the spread of learning in England.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Anthropic's Claude chatbot is among the most popular, rivaling ChatGPT and Gemini.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
More than 2 pounds of honor cords, pins, stoles and medallions — a stash rivaling that of a supreme Allied commander — crashed to the dirt outside the 18-year-old’s Adelanto home.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
The bank tracked that metric for roughly 45 developed and emerging economies, and found 27 saw a median March jump of 5.5%, rivaling what was seen after Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 14, 2026
"This tells us that by the mid-Cambrian, when evolutionary rates were remarkably high, the oceans were already inhabited by arthropods with anatomical complexity rivaling modern forms," Ortega-Hernández added.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 3, 2026
Some of the women were capable of lightning- fast mental math, rivaling their mechanical calculating machines for speed and accuracy.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
That will remain their focus as attention turns to rivalling the sport's greatest stars on its biggest stages.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Claude Fable 5 is a version of Anthropic's Claude Mythos, an AI program rivalling competitors OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
Before the war, Dubai was the world's second-biggest airport in terms of passengers transiting, after Atlanta, while Doha had passenger levels rivalling those of Hong Kong or Frankfurt.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
The cyclone's landfall was likely one of the strongest recorded in the region during the satellite era, rivalling Geralda in February 1994, it said.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
What a splendid harbour—ships of all nations here; what a romantic city as seen from the sea, and the surroundings how romantic, rivalling even Edinburgh itself in beauty!
From Annie o' the Banks o' Dee by Gordon Stables
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.
