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versus

Definitions

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

  • preposition In conflict or competition with; against.
  • preposition As the alternative to or in contrast with.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Against: used chiefly in legal phraseology: as, John Doe versus Richard Roe. Abbreviated v., vs.

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

  • preposition Against; ; -- chiefly used in legal language, and abbreviated to v. or vs.

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

  • conjunction Used to link two or more opposing or contrasting elements.
  • preposition against, in opposition to.
  • preposition compared with, as opposed to.
  • preposition Bringing a legal action against, as used in the title of a court case in which the first party indicates the plaintiff (or appellant or the like), and the second indicates the defendant (or respondent or the like).

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin, from Latin, turned, toward, from past participle of vertere, to turn; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin versus ("against, turned"), past participle of vertere ("to turn, change, overthrow, destroy").

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Examples

  • "When you're looking at a game, what's a word versus what's a sentence versus what's a chapter versus what's a whole book?" he asked rhetorically.

    Ars Technica Kyle Orland 2012

  • It is hard to know how the scale is tilting between Corzine's "desire to clear his name versus his lawyer's desire to not have him answer questions" Slotnick says.

    Forbes.com: News Steve Schaefer 2011

  • But in a case that would come down largely to his word versus hers, prosecutors believed the weaknesses in her history were extremely damaging.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2011

  • That's the only reason I can come up with to explain the magnitude of exaggeration in the title versus the "news" inside.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • Lesnar (4-1), a former three-time WWE champion who played for the Minnesota Vikings during the preseason in 2004, has not fought since he successfully defended his title versus Frank Mir (13-4) by TKO (strikes) last July in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Elites TV 2010

  • Lesnar (4-1), a former three-time WWE champion who played for the Minnesota Vikings during the preseason in 2004, has not fought since he successfully defended his title versus Frank Mir (13-4) by TKO (strikes) last July in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Elites TV 2010

  • A Solomonic judgment would be simply to replace the word "versus" with a comma: "purely criminal, state-sponsored."

    'Purely Criminal, State-Sponsored' Alex Goldfarb 2011

  • On May 5, 2007 in Streamwood, Illinois, MsChif was defeated by Amazing Kong for the NWA World Women's Championship in a title versus title match.

    Archive 2007-10-01 ~~ Sabre ~~ 2007

  • On May 5, 2007 in Streamwood, Illinois, MsChif was defeated by Amazing Kong for the NWA World Women's Championship in a title versus title match.

    MsChif ~~ Sabre ~~ 2007

  • You know, people always point the presidents to sort of look at how they've changed, at the beginning of their term versus end of their term.

    CNN Transcript Dec 1, 2004 2004

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