rival
Americannoun
-
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:
Palestinian factions including Abbas's Fatah party and its longtime Islamist rival Hamas had agreed to recommend the elections be postponed at a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, a source who was present told AFP.
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2026
Despite health consequences that can rival other major risk factors, both problems remain relatively overlooked as urgent public health concerns.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
The ChatGPT-maker, along with rival Anthropic, have been eyeing blockbuster stock market debuts that would value the firms at more than $1tn each.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
He made peace with Elon Musk, a rival who had once called Anthropic “smug, sanctimonious and hypocritical.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Surely it won’t rival the winter of 1922, when ice storms were followed by blizzards and nobody could get any relief?
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
Sheffield United fans may argue that they, not city rivals Sheffield Wednesday, should make this list.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The British rivals finally met at a news conference on 30 September to begin the build-up to one of the most anticipated fights in British history.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
And the rapid growth of Amazon—which is ahead of its retail rivals on automation—has dialed up the urgency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
For the U.S. frontier labs, spending billions to be six months ahead of rivals, the thing to worry about is whether their spending will pay off—and whether government will let it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
The Washington freshmen paddled over to the California boat and collected the traditional trophy of victorious crews everywhere—the shirts off the backs of their vanquished rivals.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
If Artemisia’s dramatic images announced her admiration for Caravaggio’s innovations, her dramatic personal history rivaled that of the bad boy of the Baroque, although, unlike him, she didn’t murder anyone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 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
“It’s only rivaled by the ‘84 Sarajevo team.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026
Bad Bunny is a true superstar, racking up streaming numbers rivaled only by Taylor Swift.
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2026
The character was played by a gifted high school actor, someone talented beyond his years, the only student actor I would see anywhere who rivaled Truman’s best.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Michael Jackson is a prime example of this conundrumFor his millions of devotees their love for him is rivalled in intensity only by their seething loathing for his critics.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
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
But the groundswell of support for the league is increasingly being rivalled by critical voices.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 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
Altman ran the venture firm Y Combinator before becoming OpenAI CEO and used that role to build a personal investment portfolio totaling hundreds of startups, a scale rivaling large venture firms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 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
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
It encompasses the company's AI assistant and family of models, rivalling OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 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
They believe its steep walls could form the deepest blue hole in the Caribbean, rivalling Belize's famous Great Blue Hole.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 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
The gentlemen brilliant in scarlet, the ladies half rivalling them in masculine hats, but softening the effect with gossamer veils wound scarf-like around them, and a graceful flow of dark drapery.
From Norston's Rest by Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
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.
