Rival

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈraɪvÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -aɪvÉ™l

Origin

From Latin rīvālis, literally ‘person using the same stream as another’, from rīvus ("small stream, brook").

Full definition of rival

Noun

1. A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
• 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, The tao of tech, The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about …, or offering services that let you... "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
2. Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.
3. Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
   As a social historian, he has no rival.
4. (obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
• William ShakespeareIf you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
  The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Derived terms

• rivalry
• archrival

Adjective

1. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions
• MacaulayThe strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.

Verb

1. (transitive) To oppose or compete with.to rival somebody in love
2. To be equal to or to surpass another.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 1, The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, ….
3. To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
• Drydento rival thunder in its rapid course

Anagrams

• Avril, viral