adversarial

adjective ad·ver·sar·i·al \ ˌad-vər-ˈser-ē-əl , ˌad-və- , -ˈse-rē- \

Updated on: 11 Sep 2017

Definition of adversarial

:involving two people or two sides who oppose each other :of, relating to, or characteristic of an adversary or adversary procedures (see ²adversary 2)

an adversarial relationship

an adversarial system of justice with prosecution and defense opposing each other

See adversarial defined for English-language learners

Examples of adversarial in a Sentence

an adversarial system of justice with prosecution and defense opposing each other
the relationship between the president and the congress should not be adversarial if anything is to get done

Recent Examples of adversarial from the Web

The draft report is the result of a U.S. Department of Justice review known as a collaborative reform initiative — a voluntary, non-adversarial process aimed at improving the community's trust in the Police Department.

— jsonline.com, "Trust damaged between Milwaukee police and community, Department of Justice draft report says," 30 Aug. 2017
As of this deadline, tantalizing runoffs loomed at the city's two most crucial (and most adversarial) political positions: mayor and City Council represtative District 5.

— carol robinson, AL.com, "Reward offered in slaying of 69-year-old Vietnam veteran," 22 Aug. 2017
Among the program’s accomplishments is the training for more than 1,000 law professors and attorneys from across Mexico in the implementation of oral, adversarial trials.

— sandra dibble, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Mexico's judicial reforms examined at University of San Diego conference," 11 Aug. 2017
Trump’s tweet Monday is his clearest and most unequivocal embrace of the argument that collusion with a foreign country (much less a largely adversarial one) is standard-operating procedure.

— david a. graham, The Atlantic, "Trump Goes All In on the 'Collusion Is Normal' Defense," 17 July 2017
Although rats and cats have adversarial relationships outside the terrarium – inside the kittens are the perfect size to have supervised romp and play sessions with the rats.

— saryn chorney, PEOPLE.com, "WATCH: Rats Are Employed as Loving Nannies for Orphan Kittens at New York Cat Cafe," 17 July 2017
The twice-a-month court sessions are certainly different from the standard adversarial courtroom clashes between lawyers.

— christopher johnston, The Christian Science Monitor, "How Cleveland has become a leader in trying to eradicate human trafficking," 9 July 2017
So, in other words, Trump’s response to the Russian government’s interference in last year’s presidential election, with the adversarial intent of helping Trump get elected, was to consider working together on election cybersecurity in the future.

— chas danner, Daily Intelligencer, "Trump Wants to Work with Russia to Prevent Future Election Meddling," 9 July 2017
These sorts of meetings -- particularly between two major players on the world stage representing two adversarial countries -- are always ripe for some level of misunderstanding, whether purposeful or not.

— chris cillizza, CNN, "Trump confronted Putin on election meddling 24 hours after he said Russia might not have done it," 7 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'adversarial.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.