contender

noun

con·​tend·​er kən-ˈten-dər 

: one that contends

especially : a competitor for a championship or high honor

a heavyweight title contender

the leading presidential contenders

Synonyms of contender

• candidate

Examples of contender in a Sentence

There are several contestants, but only two real contenders.

This latest defeat means that she's no longer a contender for the world title.

Recent Examples on the Web

If Detroit is going to grow up into a real contender, Monday’s Game 4 feels like a must-win. —Dan Santaromita, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2026

Many internal contenders already have breadth, built across functions, geographies, products, and market cycles inside a single company. —Ruth Umoh, Fortune, 27 Apr. 2026

The dramedy, which doesn’t have an English-language title yet, is written and directed by Szifron, whose 2014 film Wild Tales was Argentina’s contender and nominee for what was then known as the Oscar’s best foreign-language film section. —Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 27 Apr. 2026

Stearns was Cohen’s white whale, a boy wonder who turned the team in the league’s smallest market, Milwaukee, into a perennial contender on a shoestring budget. —Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 27 Apr. 2026

Word History

Etymology

contend + -er entry 2

First Known Use

1547, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for contender

• bartender
• defender
• engender
• extender
• offender
• pretender
• provender
• surrender
• suspender
• transgender
• bender
• blender