1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

competition

noun

ˌkäm-pə-ˈti-shən How to pronounce competition (audio)
Definition of competitionnext
1
as in tournament
a competitive encounter between individuals or groups carried on for amusement, exercise, or in pursuit of a prize a competition between two fierce football rivals

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in contestant
one who strives for the same thing as another tried to analyze his major competition in the tennis tournament

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in rivalry
an earnest effort for superiority or victory over another the intense competition for bragging rights to being the city's best French restaurant

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of competition The partnership once again brings international men’s and women’s padel competition to Dubai, alongside hospitality, entertainment and fan experiences throughout tournament week. — Sportico Staff, Sportico.com, 18 Sep. 2026 An Australian indoor fitness athlete apologized Thursday for continuing to participate in a recent competition after apparently soiling herself. — Chuck Schilken, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2026 Founded in 2011, the Nikon Small World in Motion competition is a spinoff of the company’s Small World Photomicrography Competition, which has been around since 1974. — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 18 Sep. 2026 At a recent competition, one woman … evacuated all over herself. — Tyler Estep, AJC.com, 18 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for competition
Recent Examples of Synonyms for competition
  1. tournament
  2. contestant
  3. rivalry
  4. event
  5. competitor
  6. battle
  7. game
  8. contender
Noun
  • Clark made her first appearance in a major international tournament this month while helping the United States win its fifth consecutive World Cup championship.
    — Jackson Thompson OutKick, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Perception set up a dummy news site and created fake social-media accounts highlighting the tournament’s amenities, which included kosher food in stadiums.
    — Ruth Margalit, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of tournament
Noun
  • Below, find the full list of contestants for The Traitors season five.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Will any contestants get sucked into a chocolate pipe, Augustus Gloop-style?
    — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of contestant
Noun
  • These sensual glimmers are no match for the antagonistic sociality of straight male relationships, which, in this novel, quickly convert sympathy or desire into rivalry and aggression.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2026
  • This season and the last marked the first time in the 112-game series that the rivalry game took place in Oxford in back-to-back years.
    — Mark Harris OutKick, FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of rivalry
Noun
  • Meta also says the platform will support more than 100 immersive live sports events each year through partners including ESPN and TNT Sports.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 24 Sep. 2026
  • The Hugging Face hack may have prompted an internal review, during which OpenAI also discovered the Australian website breach, although the company did not explicitly link the two events in its statement.
    — Emily Forlini, Fortune, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of event
Noun
  • But newspaper people ought to stand in solidarity with our broadcast brethren/competitors in this incredibly small-minded and grudging clash between the White House and the Washington press corps.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 23 Sep. 2026
  • As figures like Goldberg publicly champion micro-practices, expect competitors to release bite-sized modules designed to fit between meetings or before opening a stressful email.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of competitor
Noun
  • There will be recruiting battles and NIL headaches and portal defections and angry message boards and all the other insanity that comes with coaching at a place where fans consider 9-3 an average record rather than an accomplishment.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 20 Sep. 2026
  • The White Sox, meanwhile, are in a neck-and-neck battle with the Cleveland Guardians for the American League Central crown.
    — Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of battle
Noun
  • In the demo, Meta showed people wearing the glasses while watching an NBA game and multitasking between applications.
    — Sebastian Herrera, Fortune, 24 Sep. 2026
  • More than 75 games are expected to support hand-gesture controls at launch, while Xbox Cloud Gaming will provide access to additional games.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of game
Noun
  • In one respect, John Harbaugh seems to have brought winning football back to New York New Jersey Stadium; conversely, the Cowboys’ defense is sufficiently awful to make even the lowliest opponent look like a contender.
    — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Mark that movie down in ink as a top People’s Choice contender.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of contender

Browse Nearby Words

competing
competition
competitions
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Competition.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/competition. Accessed 25 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on competition

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about competition

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of tactile

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 25
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of the words cracker fly and sale arranged in a triangle with the word fire in the middle
Triple Play Quiz Find the word that pairs with each of the three g...
See All