rivalry
Americannoun
-
rivalries
plural
-
the action, position, or relation of a rival or rivals; competition.
rivalry between Yale and Harvard.
- Synonyms:
- jealousy, antagonism, opposition
-
an instance of this.
noun
-
the act of rivalling; competition
-
the state of being a rival or rivals
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of rivalry
Explanation
Rivalry is the act of competing for the same thing against another person. Your rivalry with your older sister is amusing to the family but very annoying to her. Rivalry comes from the noun rival, the person you compete against. Often a rivalry starts when people want the same reward — and their talents are just about equal. Your rivalry for the lead in the play at the local theater isn't between you and George Clooney — it's between you and the other guy who also had a great audition.
Vocabulary lists containing rivalry
The Outsiders
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Olympics Vocabulary for Champions
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Content Summary 5.1: Causes of the Atlantic Revolutions
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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:
Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel, who ripped off their rivalry bit from Fred Allen and Jack Benny!
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Moore’s injury turned an already testy rivalry game into something far angrier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
"Given the rivalry we don't expect this to lead to any comprehensive international framework for AI regulation, but it would be the first practical guardrail," he added.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
“We pride ourselves on the fact that because we’ve created a home for creators, it has created all these other amazing opportunities for them,” YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan said of the Netflix rivalry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
All this rivalry is more of a tradition.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
Playing Cal and Stanford is also keeping the old California rivalries and traditions alive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
One of the earliest games Golesh remembers watching was an early 1990s Iron Bowl between his new employer and Alabama, one of the fiercest rivalries in football.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Theirs is among the most storied and heated rivalries in Corporate America, exacerbated by their proximity and sheer longevity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
To understand how the case became so mythologised, you have to go back to rivalries that grew larger than the men at its centre.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
It was easy enough to ignore the rivalries and suspicions among Europe’s great powers that spelled trouble ahead.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
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.
