as in contender
one who strives for the same thing as another
the third-party challenger in the presidential election
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Recent Examples of challenger
And two longer-serving incumbents are also fighting off primary challengers.
—
A.d. Quig, Chicago Tribune, 14 Mar. 2026
In District 1, which stretches from Glassell Park and Highland Park to Chinatown and Pico Union, four challengers are looking to unseat City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez.
—Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2026
Republican challenger Mike Cargile also filed to run.
—Linh Tat, Daily News, 14 Mar. 2026
Faced with pressure from Paxton, his conservative primary challenger, Cornyn on Thursday relented on the filibuster in an op-ed for the New York Post.
—W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
Kaplan opted to endorse Matsui over Vang, who presents the most serious challenger for Matsui, 81, since she was elected to the seat previously held by her husband in 2005.
—Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 13 Mar. 2026
To be sure, Google’s in-house Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are formidable challengers in both training and inference, and the newfound success of Google’s Gemini chatbot — built on TPUs — has elevated their reputation as Nvidia’s biggest threat.
—Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 13 Mar. 2026
Elsewhere, West Ham face a tough home game against title-challengers Manchester City on Saturday night, before a trip to fourth-place Aston Villa the weekend after.
—Mark Carey, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2026
Season 42 continues on Thursday with James Denison returning as champion to face two new challengers.
—Usa Today Staff, USA Today, 12 Mar. 2026
A.d. Quig, Chicago Tribune, 14 Mar. 2026
In District 1, which stretches from Glassell Park and Highland Park to Chinatown and Pico Union, four challengers are looking to unseat City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez.
—Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2026
Republican challenger Mike Cargile also filed to run.
—Linh Tat, Daily News, 14 Mar. 2026
Faced with pressure from Paxton, his conservative primary challenger, Cornyn on Thursday relented on the filibuster in an op-ed for the New York Post.
—W. James Antle Iii, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
Kaplan opted to endorse Matsui over Vang, who presents the most serious challenger for Matsui, 81, since she was elected to the seat previously held by her husband in 2005.
—Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 13 Mar. 2026
To be sure, Google’s in-house Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) are formidable challengers in both training and inference, and the newfound success of Google’s Gemini chatbot — built on TPUs — has elevated their reputation as Nvidia’s biggest threat.
—Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 13 Mar. 2026
Elsewhere, West Ham face a tough home game against title-challengers Manchester City on Saturday night, before a trip to fourth-place Aston Villa the weekend after.
—Mark Carey, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2026
Season 42 continues on Thursday with James Denison returning as champion to face two new challengers.
—Usa Today Staff, USA Today, 12 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for challenger
Noun
-
Typically some time in January, the composer begins researching top awards contenders and toying with recognizable melodies from their scores.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
13 Mar. 2026
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The Astros signed Altuve to a long-term extension in 2013, years before the club again became contenders.—
Evan Drellich,
New York Times,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Maybe the closest thing the movie has to a thesis comes when one of the contestants flies a drone to the sisters and tries to offer a compromise via a loophole in the rules that could spare all of them, if Grace is willing to make a repugnant sacrifice.—
Jada Yuan,
Vulture,
14 Mar. 2026
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After all, one of the show's guiltiest pleasures is searching each contestant's face during the reveal to suss out their true feelings.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Japan’s Neapolitan-style pizza has set the food world aflame, showing how the country is whipping up pizza that’s just as good (if not better) than its Italian competitors.—
Nicole Hoey,
Robb Report,
16 Mar. 2026
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Logan, who worked out on the defensive line Sunday, stood out among all the competitors and was awarded the overall MVP for the camp, which attracted more than 200 athletes to the event.—
Chris Hays,
The Orlando Sentinel,
16 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Sticking with BCIs, companies like NMT are being pushed by China to help compete with potential foreign rivals like Neuralink or Synchron.—
Christopher McFadden,
Interesting Engineering,
14 Mar. 2026
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It would soon be revealed that Michael was simultaneously busy negotiating an alternative deal with Anthropic’s chief rival, OpenAI.—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Challenger.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/challenger. Accessed 19 Mar. 2026.
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