How to use versus in a sentence

40 example sentences · preposition, verb

Versus means against; in opposition to. Example: “It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl.”

Examples of versus by meaning

prepositionAgainst; in opposition to.

It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

prepositionCompared with, as opposed to.

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.2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times
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.2005, Robert E. Weiss, Modeling Longitudinal Data, Springer, →ISBN, page 104

More sentences with versus

Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.From the entry market
We must always make a distinction that right versus wrong is different from legal and illegal.From the entry distinction
The grandmaster gave his opponents significant time odds, of one minute versus ten minutes.From the entry odds
In discussing alternatives to the polar extremes, Professor Nguyen mentioned two poles of a filthy floor versus a sterile surgical site.From the entry pole
In the perennial town versus gown battles, townies win some violent battles, but the collegians are winning the war.From the entry gown
When Stalinists spoke of the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, they intentionally created ambiguity regarding reeducation versus murder.From the entry liquidation
It is different from Twitch slang because players talk with each other instead of streamers versus chat.[2024 January 9, “Roblox Slang Words – Guide for Parents”, in Your Teen Magazine, Beachwood, Oh.: Your Teen Media, archived from the…. From the entry blox
The third pair of presuppositions concerns methodology: methodological individualism or atomicism versus holism or organicism.2022, Marc Lavoie, Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations, page Page 17. From the entry atomicism
This implies a difference in living in the country versus the city in the Robots universe.2020 August 31, Kelsey Dickson, “So How DOES Death Work in the Robots Universe Anyway?”, in CBR. From the entry outmode
“Or as I like to think of it, the wusses versus the awesomes.”2019, Yvonne Lindsay, Jessica Lemmon, Katherine Garbera, Harlequin Desire October 2019. From the entry awesome
Sam and Matt were yelling at each other about structure versus style.2017, Kate Canterbary, Preservation, →ISBN. From the entry struggle bus
Lon hair versus short hair, right versus left, Nat versus Commie, artyfarty versus pig.2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 161. From the entry artyfarty
Thus looking at modeled surface air temperatures versus measured global land-ocean surface temperatures is an apples-to-oranges comparison.2016 July 5, Dana Nuccitelli, “New research: climate may be more sensitive and situation more dire”, in The Guardian. From the entry apples to oranges
There are two main types of angioedema: histaminergic angioedema versus nonhistaminergic angioedema.2015 July 16, Amit Frenkel et al., “Life Threatening Idiopathic Recurrent Angioedema Responding to Cannabis”, in Case Reports in…. From the entry nonhistaminergic
In preclinical models, DT(GSHMe) 2 shows high and specific accumulation at tumor site versus inflammation site.2015 July 30, “Preclinical Evaluation of a Potential GSH Ester Based PET/SPECT Imaging Probe DT(GSHMe) 2 to Detect Gamma Glutamyl…. From the entry tripeptidic
These definitions delineate the main features of autotrophism versus heterotrophism but some supplementary points are instructive.2013, C. H. Werkman, P. W. Wilson, Bacterial Physiology, page 362. From the entry autotrophism
Trekkers versus trekkies versus people in Klingon costumes, or furries versus fursuiters versus, oh, plushies.2010 August 31, Gwendolyn Ann Smith, “We're All Someone's Freak”, in Kate Bornstein, S. Bear Bergman, editors, Gender Outlaws: The Next…. From the entry fursuiter
Michael Eric Dyson distinguishes two classes of Black Americans today: the Afristocracy versus the Ghettocracy.2010 August 21, Daniel White Hodge, The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs and a Cultural Theology, InterVarsity Press, →ISBN, page 58. From the entry Afristocracy
The seemingly intractable problematic of essentialism versus antiessentialism and primordialism versus circumstantialism endemic to identity analysis today.2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page 141. From the entry problematic
“The conflict between corporations and activists is that of narcolepsy versus remembrance.2004, David Mitchell, “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery”, in Cloud Atlas, →ISBN, pages 123-124. From the entry narcolepsy
The crucial distinction is not subject clitic versus object clitic, but shadow pronoun versus free anaphor.2004, Reineke Bok-Bennema, Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2002, page 164. From the entry shadow pronoun
Forget 'litfen' versus 'meejafen', the mediafen seem to be their own worst enemies.2001 August 17, Chris Croughton, “Re: Any thoughts appreciated.”, in uk.people.sf-fans (Usenet), message-ID…. From the entry litfan
The difference lies in true, healthy spiritual life versus pseudospiritual manipulation.1999, Ben Young, Sam Adams, The Ten Commandments of Dating. From the entry pseudospiritual
Look for the "over-unity" ratio when calculating energy output versus input as a proof of free energy.1994, David Hatcher Childress, The Free-energy Device Handbook: A Compilation of Patents & Reports, Adventures Unlimited Press, →ISBN…. From the entry over-unity
Here the Bible appears to directly address only the subject of male homosexuality: gayism versus lesbianism.1992, Eustace A. Dixon, Gospel music: vocal cords and related issues, page 175. From the entry gayism
The significance of pycnoxylic versus manoxylic organisation of wood is still not well understood.1991, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth sciences, page 122. From the entry pycnoxylic
In this count, the Syntactic sentences actually had more "unprimeable" words than the Random, 86 versus 74.1989, Cyma K. Van Petten, Context Effects in Word Recognition, page 215. From the entry unprimeable
Reciprocal field at maxima and minima of magnetoscillations versus Landau quantum number.1985, Materials Science Monographs, volume 26: Marc A. Meyers and Osman T. Inal [eds.], Frontiers in Materials Technologies, page 495…. From the entry magnetoscillation
The first ideological struggle, that of industrialism versus agriculturalism, had already begun in the nineteenth century.1984, Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira, Development and crisis in Brazil, 1930-1983, page 67. From the entry agriculturalism
Impacts versus Hyperexplosions as a cause of circular structures on Earth.1982, Jennifer M. Groh, Tectonics & Structural Geology Newsletter, Volume 8, Specialist Group in Tectonics & Structural Geology.…. From the entry hyperexplosion
Once again, therefore, there is no simple relationship between mass-populist versus elite-dominated regimes and survival versus nonsurvival.1978, Dennis Austin, Politics in Africa, page 22. From the entry nonsurvival
This underlines again that a contrast of nominality versus verbality conveys a stative versus fientive purport.1977, Haiim B. Rosén, Contemporary Hebrew, page 182. From the entry fientive
This technique combines each intensity versus zenith angle scan on a horizontal time axis.1976, Douglas P. McNutt, Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers, Methods for Atmospheric Radiometry, August 26-27, 1976, San…. From the entry keogram
Many pieces have been written on the etymology of “university” and on the etymology of “education” (educare versus educere).2026 May 9, Hollis Robbins, “What does the "higher" in higher ed mean? AI is forcing the question”, in Anecdotal Value [Substack newsletter]. From the entry higher education
A cube drawn face-on versus from one edge looks different, though we understand the two shapes to be the same.2025 August 30, Katrina Miller, “You Don't Need to Be Good at Math to Enjoy It. In her latest book, Eugenia Cheng, a mathematician…. From the entry equal
It’s lightweight, flexible and a great packable jacket, but it only has a 2.5-layer membrane versus the Torrentshell’s three-layer one.2025 January 3, Kai Burkhardt, “The best rain jackets of 2025, tried and tested”, in CNN. From the entry packable
Think Bernie Sanders versus Kamala Harris, but dialled up to France where revolution is part of the national psyche.2025 May 3, Leila Abboud, “Lunch with the FT: Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd.…. From the entry dial up

Meaning of versus

preposition Against; in opposition to.
preposition Compared with, as opposed to.
preposition 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).

Full definition of versus

Questions about versus in a sentence

How do you use versus in a sentence?: Versus is used as a preposition and verb. For example: “It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl.”
What is a short sentence with versus?: “Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.”
What does versus mean?: Versus means against; in opposition to.

Adapted from Wiktionary: versus (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use versus in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/versus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.