Versus
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˈvÉœËsÉ™s/
- US IPA: /ˈvÉsÉ™s/, /ˈvÉsÉ™z/, sometimes IPA: /ˈvÉs/
- Rhymes: -ÉœË(r)sÉ™s
Origin
From Latin versus ("against, turned"), past participle of vertere ("to turn, change, overthrow, destroy").
Full definition of versus
Conjunction
- Used to link two or more opposing or contrasting elements.
Preposition
- against, in opposition to.It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl.
- compared with, as opposed to.
- 2012, November 7, Matt Bai, Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, In polling by the Pew Research Center in November 2008, fully half the respondents thought the two parties would cooperate more in the coming year, versus only 36 percent who thought the climate would grow more adversarial.
- 2005, Robert E. Weiss, Modeling Longitudinal Data, Springer, ISBN 978-0-387-40271-0, page 104:If, for example, we select random people entering a workout gym, versus if we pick random people entering a hospital, we will get very different samples.
- Bringing a legal action against, as used in the title of a court case in which the first party indicates the plaintiff (or appellant or the like), and the second indicates the defendant (or respondent or the like).Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.