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:
The names of Bernard "Monty" Montgomery, the World War Two general who outwitted his arch rival, and former prime minister Winston Churchill are on the list.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
Retailers have done the same with their own rival store brands.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
Jake should’ve pulled a number out of the Bob Marley playbook when he forced rival political Jamaican leaders to join him on stage and greet each other.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Northrop Grumman shares slipped 4.2% to $483.48 after it lost to rival Boeing in a competition to build the Navy’s next-generation jet fighter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
There was no darkness she could send him to rival what he’d endured already.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron both based in the Houston region, have acquired rivals once based in New York, Denver and Irving, Texas and centralized corporate functions in Houston.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Belle Vue, or the DIY Kitchens Stadium as it is now known, has had its special nights since, such as the win to relegate rivals Castleford and secure safety at their expense in 2006.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
Gordon said he had been "dying" to link up with Alexander-Arnold, who is also playing in Spain for Barcelona's rivals Real Madrid.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
The club could also face a flood of compensation claims from rivals.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
The field was formidable, featuring Seabiscuit’s old rivals Aneroid and Indian Broom, plus Today, with Woolf up.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Sheehan was charged with three runs in five-plus innings, a massive turnaround coming off the second-shortest start of his career, only rivaled by a planned one-inning outing at the end of last season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 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
Yellowstone elevated television to a new level, and did so without special effects or CGI, but instead via a combination of compelling story, strong writing and acting, and cinematography that rivaled that of movies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 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
It has rivalled US tech dominance with the chatbot DeepSeek and BYD, which beat Tesla last year to become the world's largest EV maker.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2025
The star power in the London production will be rivalled by another new version on Broadway pairing Heartstopper's Kit Connor with West Side Story's Rachel Zegler, which will open in September.
From BBC ● May 24, 2024
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
Costco has a mass appeal rivaling Hollywood—and it might be our last best source of common culture, writes columnist Adam Chandler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
A new wave of wealth from the AI industry results in rents in San Francisco that average $5,500 a month, rivaling New York prices and leaving even well-paid newcomers scrambling for a place to live.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 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
Pushing himself off the ground, Sheed found himself among a gang of Clock Watchers rivaling the library gathering.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Together, the Jio and NSE listings would be among India's largest IPOs in recent years, rivalling Hyundai Motor India's $3.3bn blockbuster share sale two years ago.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 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
Injuries have been a factor, but there is also competition for places - with the likes of Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers and Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham rivalling him for the number 10 role.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026
Silky hair, rivalling the gloss of the raven’s wing, falls in luxuriant folds down her back; on the slender, delicate neck, whose whiteness shames the swan’s down, rests the beautiful head.
From Lola Montez An Adventuress of the 'Forties by Edmund B. d'Auvergne
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.
