BEATS Synonyms: 628 Similar and Opposite Words

beats 1 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of beat

as in licks

to strike repeatedly they attacked and beat him, but fortunately he'll be fine

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Relevance

as in defeats

to achieve a victory over she always beats everyone at checkers, but she's not as good at chess

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as in surpasses

to be greater, better, or stronger than this new animated feature sure beats everything else that's ever been done in animation

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loses (to)

as in throbs

to expand and contract in a rhythmic manner the patient's heart beats roughly 60 times per minute

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as in flutters

to move or cause to move with a striking motion the bird's wings beat strongly as it soared in the air

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as in frustrates

to prevent from achieving a goal you beat me to it

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as in draws

to shape with a hammer the medieval artisans who beat iron into exquisite swords

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as in glows

to shine with a bright harsh light the tropical sun beat down on our heads without mercy

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as in drums

to strike or cause to strike lightly and usually rhythmically beat the drum in a marching rhythm

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as in confuses

to throw into a state of mental uncertainty it beats me how that slipup happened

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as in circumvents

to avoid having to comply with (something) especially through cleverness he spends all of his time trying to beat the system

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as in grinds

to reduce to fine particles years of pounding had beaten the pebbles to a fine dust

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as in plucks

to rob by the use of trickery or threats the screenwriter has filed a lawsuit, accusing the production company of beating him out of his share of the film's net profits

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beats

2 of 2

noun

plural of beat

as in blows

a hard strike with a part of the body or an instrument delivered one hard beat on the drums

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as in pulses

a rhythmic expanding and contracting a single beat of the heart is said to be all that separates the vice president from the presidency

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as in rhythms

the recurrent pattern formed by a series of sounds having a regular rise and fall in intensity moved to the beat of the music

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as in heartbeats

a very small space of time within a beat he was on the phone complaining about an error in his bill

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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 beats

Verb

The loneliness is accentuated by the jittery, dreaminess of his club beats for the headphones that make even the goofiest songs seem personal. — Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 8 Oct. 2026 The company posted one benchmark that claims the Surface Laptop Ultra beats Apple’s MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip, by offering a 2-6x performance increase on certain workloads, including image and video generation. — Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 7 Oct. 2026 Sure, the Model Y beats the iX4 in a few categories, most importantly price. — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 7 Oct. 2026 That too beats the previous record of 215 for the same period, which was set in 2017. — Jesse Zanger, CBS News, 6 Oct. 2026 The total beats the 2025 attendance of 165,000, Mike Testa, president of Visit Sacramento, said in an email after consulting promoter Danny Wimmer Presents. — Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 5 Oct. 2026 In short, a location offering a minute of totality beneath a clear sky easily beats six minutes beneath cloud. — Jamie Carter, Space.com, 3 Oct. 2026 Euless Trinity beats South Grand Prairie Euless Trinity (3-2, 2-0) picked up a critical District 8-6A victory Friday that could pave the way to the program’s first district championship since 2021. — Charles Baggarly, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 Oct. 2026 There is an art to stylizing a position of interrogation in excess of its biomechanics, an art to how lockstep beats a cadence while a unit swells into an enveloping arc. — Sophie Landres, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026

Noun

Drill rappers hop on their beats; new gen stars keep on brushing up against them. — Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 8 Oct. 2026 Regarding any of the movie’s more controversial beats, however, Altman shrugs it all off. — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 5 Oct. 2026 For example, if your goal is to maintain a rate of 110 steps per minute, look for playlists that feature songs with tempos around 110 beats per minute (BPM). — Jenessa Connor, HEALTH, 5 Oct. 2026 In 2011, Joe Kay debuted Soulection as a college radio show at Cal State Long Beach, spinning rare B-sides, progressive beats, inventive flips of classic records and soulful underground tracks. — Kailyn Brown, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2026 In 1887, Eadweard Muybridge’s pioneering photographic study Animal Locomotion captured a horse in motion, revealing that the gallop was different from the canter, with four beats instead of three. — Air Mail, 3 Oct. 2026 The Governance-First Deployment Model In regulated industries, designing and architecting for resilience beats being the first to ship or go to market in environments where trust is the product. — Olufunsho Peters, Forbes.com, 2 Oct. 2026 But alas, eventually all involved have to get down to business and actually contend with the plot beats of Hoover’s story, which is when the movie careens off a cliff, plummeting past so-bad-it’s-good and crashing on the rocks of agonizingly dumb. — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2026 While a strong quarter is expected, investors might be less focused on earnings-per-share and revenue beats. — Natasha Abellard, CNBC, 25 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for beats

Verb

That glib self-confidence is present in McNamara, who licks the doughnut glaze off his fingers before offering his hand to the female detective questioning the one living Jason.

— Scott Tobias, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026
Later, a woman protractedly licks blue ice cream from a cone, her attempts thwarted by ferocious gusts of wind and sand.

— Matilda Hague, Variety, 13 Aug. 2026

Definition of licks

Verb

The Apex also surpasses the Alphafly 4 in weight savings, as the former model is 10 percent lighter than the Alphafly 3 compared to a 5 percent reduction on the latter.

— Ian Servantes, Footwear News, 30 Sep. 2026
In recent years, Hinton, who previously worked at Google, has issued a series of warnings about existential risks associated with AI, particularly if an AI model surpasses human intelligence and becomes autonomous.

— Katie McQue, NPR, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of surpasses

Verb

The Constitution allocates political power — specifically representation in the House of Representatives — and draws political districts in relation to decennial census counts of population size.

— Nancy Krieger, STAT, 9 Oct. 2026
Through the company, Rodriguez offered to provide quick drive-through nasal swab testing and blood draws for antibody testing.

— Angie DiMichele, Sun Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of draws

Verb

Show Caption 1 of 43 A Chicago Bears digital billboard glows at sunrise just off of Route 53 at the former Arlington International Racecourse on May 23, 2025, in Arlington Heights.

— Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune, 1 Oct. 2026
The tool relies on a soluble liquid substitute that glows during the reaction, reducing measurement times to minutes and enabling rapid evaluation of large libraries of enzyme variants.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 21 Sep. 2026