competitive
adjective
Simple meaning
Related to a business relation in which two parties compete to gain customers.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhmpehtuhtivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəmˈpɛtətɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of or pertaining to competition.
of someone's character
Inclined to compete.
Involving competition or competitiveness
economics
Capable of competing successfully.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or pertaining to competition.
Used this way, competitive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use competitive
- “She has a very competitive spirit when playing games.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Of, or pertaining to, capitalism.
Of or pertaining to capitalism or to capitalists.
Pertaining to an agonist.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The contestant you hope to defeat.
In competition.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: of or pertaining to competition
Antonyms
Sense: of or pertaining to competition
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.