Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of competing, as for profit or a prize; rivalry.
  • noun A test of skill or ability; a contest.
  • noun Rivalry between two or more businesses striving for the same customer or market.
  • noun A competitor.
  • noun Ecology The simultaneous demand by two or more organisms for limited environmental resources, such as nutrients, living space, or light.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of seeking or endeavoring to gain what another is endeavoring to gain at the same time; common contest or striving for the same object; strife for superiority; rivalry: as, the competition of two candidates for an office. Formerly it was sometimes followed by to, now always by for, before the thing sought.
  • noun A trial of skill proposed as a test of superiority or comparative fitness.
  • noun In Scots law, a contest which arises on bankruptcy between creditors claiming in virtue of their respective securities or diligences.
  • noun In political economics, rivalry in the purchase or sale of a commodity or service: as, the competition of wage-earners lowers wages; British merchants have to meet German competition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of seeking, or endeavoring to gain, what another is endeavoring to gain at the same time; common strife for the same objects; strife for superiority; emulous contest; rivalry, as for approbation, for a prize, or as where two or more persons are engaged in the same business and each seeking patronage; -- followed by for before the object sought, and with before the person or thing competed with.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The action of competing.
  • noun countable A contest for a prize or award.
  • noun uncountable, collectively The competitors in such a contest.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the contestant you hope to defeat
  • noun a business relation in which two parties compete to gain customers
  • noun an occasion on which a winner is selected from among two or more contestants
  • noun the act of competing as for profit or a prize

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin competitio, from competere, from Latin petō.

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