COMPETITOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does competitor mean? 

• COMPETITOR (noun)
  The noun COMPETITOR has 1 sense:

1. the contestant you hope to defeat

  Familiarity information: COMPETITOR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPETITOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The contestant you hope to defeat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

challenger; competition; competitor; contender; rival

Context example:

he wanted to know what the competition was doing

Hypernyms ("competitor" is a kind of...):

contestant (a person who participates in competitions)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "competitor"):

champ; champion; title-holder (someone who has won first place in a competition)

comer (someone with a promising future)

finalist (a contestant who reaches the final stages of a competition)

enemy; foe (a personal enemy)

favorite; favourite; front-runner (a competitor thought likely to win)

king; queen; world-beater (a competitor who holds a preeminent position)

runner-up; second best (the competitor who finishes second)

scratch (a competitor who has withdrawn from competition)

semifinalist (one of four competitors remaining in a tournament by elimination)

street fighter (a contestant who is very aggressive and willing to use underhand methods)

tier (any one of two or more competitors who tie one another)

tilter (someone who engages in a tilt or joust)

Derivation:

compete (compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others)

 Context examples 

In a new study, led by Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, researchers used a combination of experiments and mathematical models to see what happens when bacteria provoke their competitors.

(Bacteria Can 'Divide and Conquer' to Vanquish Their Enemies, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This, researchers say, would have put dinosaurs at a disadvantage over animals with quicker-hatching eggs and their mammalian competitors.

(Slow-cooking dinosaur eggs may have contributed to extinction, Wikinews)

Fexofenadine is a highly selective and reversible competitor at peripheral H1 histamine receptors in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, blood vessels, and bronchial smooth muscle.

(Fexofenadine, NCI Thesaurus)

That joining enabled potential predators and competitors to access the environment.

(Fossil discovery adds to understanding of how geological changes affected evolution of mammalian life, National Science Foundation)

I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"There is something about the snailfish that allows them to adapt to living very deep. Beyond the reach of other fish, they are free of competitors and predators," Linley said in the statement.

(Three New Species of Fish Found at Bottom of Pacific Ocean, VOA)

“So my son took, of his own will, and on no compulsion, to the course in which he can always, when it is his pleasure, outstrip every competitor,” she pursued.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

After this well-positioned new moon arrives on March 24, you may have a superb opportunity to interview for a better job within your company or with a competitor.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

MHC is critical to health and fitness, such that MHC genotype may predict an individual's quality or compatibility as a competitor, ally or mate.

(Lemurs can smell whether a mate's immune genes are a good match, National Science Foundation)

Maribavir is a selective ATP competitor of viral UL97 kinase, which is involved in viral nuclear maturation events, such as viral DNA assembly and movement of viral capsids from the nucleus of infected cells.

(Maribavir, NCI Thesaurus)