rivals
noun · verb
Form of rival , plural of rival.
Simple meaning
A competitor with the same goal as another.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ryvuhlzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹaɪvəlz
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.
noun
plural of rival
A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
plural of rival
Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
verb
third-person singular of rival
To be equal to, or match, or to surpass another.
third-person singular of rival
To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
third-person singular of rival
To oppose or compete with.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
Used this way, rivals is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Be equal to in quality or ability.
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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.