rival

/ˈɹaɪvəl/

rival noun: 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.

Noun

rival (plural rivals)

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.
- Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.
- Every day is like survival / You're my lover, not my rival1983, “Karma Chameleon”, in Colour by Numbers, performed by Culture Club
Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
- As a social historian, he has no rival.
(obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
- If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Adjective

rival (not comparable)

Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.
- rival lovers
- rival claims or pretensions

Verb

rival (third-person singular simple present rivals, present participle (US) rivaling or (UK) rivalling, simple past and past participle (US) rivaled or (UK) rivalled)

(transitive) To oppose or compete with.
- to rival somebody in love
To be equal to, or match, or to surpass another.
- But the Waverley is still the best-placed station of any British city, and gives the arriving stranger a first impression rivalled in Europe only by the exclusively watery station approach at Venice.1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 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, […].1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
- to rival thunder in its rapid course1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

rival meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

rival in Hindi

competitor with the same objective: प्रतिद्वंद्वी pratidvandvī, प्रतियोगी pratiyogī, प्रतिरोधी pratirodhī, प्रतिवादी prativādī, प्रतिस्पर्धी pratispardhī

rival in Tamil

போட்டியாளர், எதிரி

rival in Urdu

competitor with the same objective: رَقِیب raqīb, حَرِیف harīf

rival in Bengali

competitor with the same objective: প্রতিদ্বন্দ্বী protiddonddi

More languagesFewer languages

rival in Telugu: సరితూగు saritūgu, ఒడ్డు oḍḍu
rival in Malayalam: എതിരാളി etirāḷi
rival in Kannada: ಎದುರಾಳಿ, ಪ್ರತಿಸ್ಪರ್ಧಿ, ಪ್ರತಿದ್ವಂದ್ವಿ, ಎದುರಾಳಿಯಾಗು
rival in Punjabi: ਗੈਰ gair, ਸੌਂਕਣ sauṅkaṇ
rival in Odia: ପ୍ରତିଦ୍ୱନ୍ଦ୍ୱୀ pratidwandwi
rival in Sanskrit: स्पर्धते spardhate
rival in Nepali: प्रतिद्वन्द्वी, प्रतिद्वंद्वी
rival in Pashto: رقيب raqíb, حريف haríf, سيال sayāl
rival in Tagalog: kaagaw
rival in Arabic: مُنَافِس munāfis
rival in Malay: saingan, lawan
rival in Indonesian: lawan, penentang, musun
rival in Thai: คู่แข่ง kûu-kɛ̀ng
rival in Vietnamese: đối thủ, địch thủ
rival in Myanmar: အပြိုင် a.pruing, ယှဉ်ဖက် hyanyhpak

Examples of rival in a sentence

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.2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify...

All 40 example sentences with rival

Forms of rival

Noun
plural	rivals
Verb
third-person singular present	rivals
present participle US	rivaling
present participle UK	rivalling
past participle US	rivaled
past US	rivaled
past participle UK	rivalled
past UK	rivalled

Plural of rival: rivals

Origin of rival

Learned borrowing from Latin rīvālis (literally “person using the same stream as another”). By surface analysis, Latin rīvus + -al.

Words formed from rival

Phrases with rival

Words that rhyme with rival

38 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rival

What does rival mean?: Rival means 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.
What is rival in Hindi?: Rival in Hindi is प्रतिद्वंद्वी (pratidvandvī), प्रतियोगी (pratiyogī), प्रतिरोधी (pratirodhī). See Rival meaning in Hindi.
How do you use rival in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is rival?: Rival can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce rival?: Rival is pronounced /ˈɹaɪvəl/.
What is the plural of rival?: The plural of rival is rivals.

Words near rival in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: rival (page history and authors); rival (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ఒడ్డు (Telugu) (page history and authors); എതിരാളി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); rival (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਗੈਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ପ୍ରତିଦ୍ୱନ୍ଦ୍ୱୀ (Odia) (page history and authors); rival (Nepali, 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rival.ogg.

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