Word.ws English Dictionary

rat races

rat races is the plural of rat race.

Meaning of rat race

Noun

rat race (plural rat races)

  1. (informal) An activity or situation which is congested with participants and which is hectic or tedious, especially in the context of a busy, modern urban lifestyle.
    • […] a 1950s-ish town, keeping a sense of community far from the superhighway rat race.2006 May 14, Richard Corliss, “Get Your Motor Running”, in Time
  2. (broadly) The busy, modern urban lifestyle itself, especially when seen as a competition for wealth or power.
    • Forget about the rat race / Let's do the Milkshake / Selling like a hotcake1979, Robin Scott, “Pop Muzik”
  3. Inconsiderate or unfair competition, where the competitors are willing to use any means to win.

Questions about rat races

What is rat races the plural of?
Rat races is the plural of rat race.

Words near rat races in the dictionary

  1. rat printing office
  2. rat printing offices
  3. rat race
  4. rat racer
  5. rat racers
  6. rat races
  7. rat ran
  8. rat rod
  9. rat rods
  10. rat run
  11. rat runner

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rat races (page history and authors); rat race (page history and authors). 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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Cite this entry: “rat races.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rat_races. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.