Word.ws English Dictionary

compete

/kəmˈpiːt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/kəmˈpiʈ/

compete verb: to be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend.

compete: to be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend
Image: Rick Dikeman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

compete (third-person singular simple present competes, present participle competing, simple past and past participle competed)

  1. To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend.
    • Negga, who was born in Ethiopia but grew up in Limerick, already has a clutch of Best Actress nominations under her belt for Loving but this is the most high profile to date. She's won rave reviews for her performance since the movie's premiere at Cannes in May, where it competed for the Palme d'Or.2016 December 13, “Golden Globes going green again to honour Irish talent”, in RTE
    • "No. But one, or both of those men, may prove to be worse. That second man was Addison Berg, and he's agent for a firm of submarine boat builders who are rivals of dad's. Berg has been trying to find out why we abandoned our intention of competing for the Government prize."1910, Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat, page 70
  2. To be in a position in which it is possible to win or triumph.
    • Now, when it comes to meeting the larger challenges we face as a nation, I realize that finding this unity is easier said than done – especially in Washington. But if we want to compete on the world stage as well as we’ve competed in the world’s games, we need to find common ground.2010, Barack Obama, Presidential Weekly Address (27 February 2010)
  3. To take part in a contest, game or similar event.
  4. To strive to achieve or obtain something which another also strives for, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

compete meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

compete in Hindi

प्रतिस्पर्धा करें, प्रतिस्पर्धा करना

compete in Tamil

பங்கு கொள், போட்டியிடு

compete in Marathi

स्पर्धा करणे

compete in Urdu

مقابلہ کرنا, مقابلہ کریں
More languagesFewer languages
compete in Bengali
জুঝা, টক্কর দেওয়া, পাল্লা দেওয়া, ক্রীড়া করা
compete in Telugu
పోటీ పడటానికి
compete in Malayalam
മത്സരിയ്ക്കുക matsariykkuka
compete in Kannada
ಸೆಣಸು, ಹೊಣರು, ಹುರುಡಿಸು, ಹುರುಡುಕಟ್ಟು
compete in Punjabi
ਮੁਕਾਬਲਾ ਕਰੋ, ਮੁਕਾਬਲਾ ਕਰਨਾ
compete in Gujarati
સ્પર્ધા કરો, સ્પર્ધા કરવી, સ્પર્ધા કરવા
compete in Odia
ପ୍ରତିଦ୍ୱନ୍ଦ୍ୱିତା କରନ୍ତୁ, ପ୍ରତିଦ୍ୱନ୍ଦ୍ୱିତା କରିବା
compete in Sanskrit
स्पर्धते spardhate
compete in Arabic
تَنَافَسَ tanāfasa, تَبَارَى tabārā
compete in Malay
bertanding
compete in Thai
แข่ง kɛ̀ng, แข่งขัน kɛ̀ng-kǎn

Examples of compete in a sentence

  • The teams competed to see who could collect (the) most money.
  • You have to be very quick to be able to compete in ad-lib theatrics.
  • Railroads can only compete fully if their tracks are technically compatible with and linked to each other.

All 40 example sentences with compete

Antonyms of compete

Forms of compete

third-person singular presentcompetes
present participlecompeting
past participlecompeted
pastcompeted

Past tense of compete: competed

Origin of compete

Borrowed from Middle French competer, from Latin competere (“to coincide, to be equal to, to be capable of”), from com- (“with”) + petō (“to seek; to aim for, strive for”). Compare Latin competītor (“competitor”).

Words formed from compete

Words that rhyme with compete

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about compete

What does compete mean?
Compete means to be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend.
What is compete in Hindi?
Compete in Hindi is प्रतिस्पर्धा करें, प्रतिस्पर्धा करना. See Compete meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is compete?
Compete is a verb.
How do you pronounce compete?
Compete is pronounced /kəmˈpiːt/.
What is the past tense of compete?
The past tense of compete is competed.

Words near compete in the dictionary

  1. compersive
  2. compesce
  3. compesced
  4. compesces
  5. compescing
  6. compete
  7. competed
  8. competence
  9. competence porn
  10. competence-competence
  11. competences

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compete (page history and authors); compete (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); compete (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); compete (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); compete (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); compete (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); compete (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); compete (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); compete (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); compete (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); compete (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-compete.wav.

Cite this entry: “compete.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/compete. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.