• IPA: /ˈɹaɪvəl/

rival (plural rivals)

1. 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.

   Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.

2. Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.

   As a social historian, he has no rival.

3. (obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

     If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

• French: rival
• German: Gegner, Rivale, Konkurrent
• Italian: rivale, competitore, antagonista, avversario
• Portuguese: rival, adversário, competidor
• Russian: сопе́рник
• Spanish: rival

• Italian: rivale, pari, avversario
• Portuguese: rival
• Russian: ра́вный

rival (not comparable)

1. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.

   rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions

   • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:

rival (rivals, present participle rivalling; past and past participle rivalled)

1. (transitive) To oppose or compete with.

   to rival somebody in love

2. To be equal to, or match, or to surpass another.
3. To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.

   • to rival thunder in its rapid course

• French: rivaliser
• German: rivalisieren
• Italian: rivaleggiare, competere
• Russian: сопе́рничать