rival

From Latin rīvālis (literally “person using the same stream as another”), from rīvus (“small stream, brook”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪvəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪvəl

rival (plural rivals)

1. 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.

   • 1983, “Karma Chameleon”, in Colour by Numbers, performed by Culture Club:

     Every day is like survival / You're my lover, not my rival

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. 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.

2. Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.

   As a social historian, he has no rival.

3. (obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
   • 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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

• rivaless

• rivaless
• rivalry
• archrival, arch-rival

• rivulet

rival (not comparable)

1. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.

   rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.

• rivalrous

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

1. (transitive) To oppose or compete with.

   to rival somebody in love

2. To be equal to, or match, or to surpass another.
   • 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:

     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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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, […] .

3. To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     to rival thunder in its rapid course

• Avril, arvil, viral

Borrowed from Latin rīvālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [riˈβal]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [riˈval]

rival m or f (masculine and feminine plural rivals)

1. rival

• rivalitzar

• riu
• rivalitat

rival m or f by sense (plural rivals)

1. rival

• “rival”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “rival”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “rival” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “rival” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from German Rival.

• IPA^(key): [ˈrɪval]

rival m anim (female equivalent rivalka)

1. rival, competitor, opponent

   sportovní rivalové. ― sports rivals.

Borrowed from Latin rīvālis (literally “person using the same stream as another”), from rīvus (“small stream, brook”). Unrelated to rive.

• IPA^(key): /ʁi.val/

• Audio:

  (file)

rival (feminine rivale, masculine plural rivaux, feminine plural rivales)

1. (relational) rival

rival m (plural rivaux, feminine rivale)

1. rival

• → Norwegian Bokmål: rival

• “rival”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• avril, livra, viral

• IPA^(key): [ʁiˈvaːl]
• Hyphenation: ri‧val

rival (strong nominative masculine singular rivaler, not comparable)

1. (economics, of a good) rivalrous
   • 2012, Michael Goldhammer, Geistiges Eigentum und Eigentumstheorie, Mohr Siebeck, page 196:

     Als zweites Argument gegen die Möglichkeit von geistigem Eigentum wird häufig vorgebracht, dass immaterielle Güter ihrer Natur nach nicht rival seien […]

     As a second argument against the possibility of intellectual property, it is often brought forward that immaterial goods are not rivalrous by nature

From French rival (“rival”), from Latin rīvālis (“of or pertaining to a brook; rival”), from rīvus (“brook; channel”), from Proto-Italic *rīwos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃riH-wó-s, from *h₃reyH- (“to move, flow”), from *h₃er- (“to move, stir”).

rival m (definite singular rivalen, indefinite plural rivaler, definite plural rivalene)

1. a rival

• erkerival

• “rival” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin rivalis, via French rival.

rival m (definite singular rivalen, indefinite plural rivalar, definite plural rivalane)

1. a rival

• erkerival

• “rival” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: ri‧val

rival m or f by sense (plural rivais)

1. rival (competitor with the same objective)

   Synonyms: adversário, oponente

rival m or f (plural rivais)

1. rival (standing in competition)

• rio

Borrowed from French rival, from Latin rivalis.

rival m (plural rivali)

1. rival

• IPA^(key): /rǐʋaːl/
• Hyphenation: ri‧val

rìvāl m anim (Cyrillic spelling рѝва̄л)

1. rival, adversary

From Latin rīvālis.

• IPA^(key): /riˈbal/ [riˈβ̞al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ri‧val

rival m or f (masculine and feminine plural rivales)

1. rival
2. adverse

   Synonym: adverso

rival m or f by sense (plural rivales)

1. rival

   Synonyms: adversario, antagonista, competidor, contrario, oponente

• “rival”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

From Latin rivalis, via French rival.

• Audio:

  (file)

rival c

1. rival

• rivalitet

• rival in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• rival in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

• vilar