How to Use rival in a Sentence

rival

1 of 3 noun
Definition of rivalnext
Synonyms for rivalnext
  • The teams have been longtime rivals.
  • The men are romantic rivals for her affection.
  • Lotto is a member of the rap group The Free World, Jimmy’s rivals in the film.
    — Variety, NBC News, 27 Sep. 2023
  • In Spain, though, the Dutch are getting a rival that shrugged off its no-show against Japan and riddled the Swiss.
    — John Powers, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Aug. 2023
  • None of them stands out as a must-buy over the others, as each offers something its rivals don't.
    — Joe Shields, PCMAG, 3 Sep. 2023
  • But Trump’s rivals dropping out of the 2024 contest — by itself — likely won’t do the trick.
    — Mark Murray, NBC News, 31 Oct. 2023
  • The main rival was a wealthy Ostelsheimer, with three children and a large family home.
    — Erika Solomon, New York Times, 28 May 2023
  • Meanwhile, the Big Three have a newer rival that is already doing a pretty good job at all of that.
    — Marley Jay, NBC News, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Now gearing up to face their rivals once again, fans can expect the rematch to be even more exciting than the first go-around.
    — Hannah Brewitt, CNN, 11 Feb. 2024
  • The answer then went on to her rival, Steve Sporre, who pronounced the answer correctly and gained the points for Williams’ solved riddle.
    — Kelly Wynne, Peoplemag, 4 Jan. 2024
  • But even some of Mr. Netanyahu’s rivals appeared reluctant to seize on the comments while the country is focused on the war in Gaza.
    — Aaron Boxerman, New York Times, 15 Mar. 2024
  • Last season’s showdown between the rivals ended with a 27 to 13 win for the Georgia Bulldogs.
    — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 14 Nov. 2023
  • At the time of the deal, 99 Cents Only had the second-highest profit margin and the most sales per square foot among its rivals, Bloomberg reported.
    — Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024
  • On the investor call today, Musk signaled his respect for his rivals.
    — Aarian Marshall, WIRED, 31 Jan. 2024
  • That growth rate outpaces all of TikTok's rivals, Gottfried said.
    — Max Zahn, ABC News, 15 Mar. 2024
  • The message that Trump seemed to want to impress upon his audience was about electability—that he was bound to beat Biden in 2024, and his rivals were not up to the task.
    — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2023
  • But the North didn't perform any missile tests during its rivals' training.
    — Bradford Betz, Fox News, 18 Mar. 2024
  • On top of rivals, players also have to worry about weather.
    — Gieson Cacho, The Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2024
  • Percy Julian opens the season next week against city rival Sidney Lanier.
    — Ben Thomas | Bthomas@al.com, al, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Ford’s deal with the UAW this week ramped up pressure on its Detroit rivals to wrap up their negotiations and get back to work.
    — Gabrielle Coppola, Fortune, 28 Oct. 2023
  • Sources say Amazon outbid at least one major streaming rival to make the deal with MrBeast, a.k.a.
    — James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Mar. 2024
  • Several bundlers and fundraisers that raised money for Trump had also moved on to raise money for his 2024 rivals.
    — Soo Rin Kim, ABC News, 27 Nov. 2023
  • Ford's latest price cut comes three months after electric vehicle rival Tesla dropped the price on one of its mid-sized sedans.
    — Khristopher J. Brooks, CBS News, 17 July 2023
  • One of Musk’s many rivals is Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates—with the former criticizing the latter many times over the past few years.
    — Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Spanish Fort holds an 8-4 edge in the series with 6A, Region 1 rival Saraland.
    — Ben Thomas | Bthomas@al.com, al, 15 Sep. 2023
  • Buzbee portrayed the impeachment as a plot orchestrated by an old guard of GOP rivals.
    — Paul J. Weber and Juan A. Lozano, Anchorage Daily News, 16 Sep. 2023
  • The team’s pre-eminence in the women’s game has been under threat from the growing investments, and the growing power, of rivals in Europe.
    — Juliet MacUr, New York Times, 20 June 2023
  • The commission said last year that Amazon also might have found ways to raise the costs of iRobot's rivals to advertise and sell their products on its platform.
    — CBS News, 29 Jan. 2024
  • Horan ignored the advice of his fellow coaches and rivals, and tapped VanderDoes to progress.
    — Lars Brandle, Billboard, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The cyberattacks mark a new phase in a digital conflict between Iran and its rivals.
    — Paul Mozur, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2023
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rival

2 of 3 adjective
  • And the sum of the numbers in the Chiefs' rival teams name is (drumroll) 4+9=13.
    — Kelsie Gibson, Peoplemag, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Now the 24-year-old singer seems to have run afoul of a rival drug gang.
    — Wire Services, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023
  • But so many of the rival campaigns at this point are in a wait-and-see mode.
    — CBS News, 11 June 2023
  • Gomez guest starred on the show as rival Mikayla Skeech.
    — Angel Saunders, Peoplemag, 1 Sep. 2023
  • Can Elfie’s friendship with Bo, the youngest member of the rival gang, bridge the gap between the Elfkin clans that have been apart for over 250 years?
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 12 Feb. 2024
  • The clear blue waters easing onto white sand beaches rival the best in the world.
    — Matt Rivers, ABC News, 31 July 2023
  • Waymo rival Cruise has been blamed for the majority of the mayhem.
    — Ethan Baron, The Mercury News, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Of the four losses, three were decided by single digits, capped by a 19-14 loss to rival Yale.
    — Jackson Tolliver, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Sep. 2023
  • The United States could also send new military aid to the Houthis’ enemies in Yemen, as some rival groups have called for.
    — Noam Raydan, Foreign Affairs, 6 Feb. 2024
  • The first two games that are set to appear on rival consoles are Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, according to sources.
    — Tom Warren, The Verge, 12 Feb. 2024
  • Males are intolerant of other rival males and will fight to protect their turf.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 1 June 2023
  • Hundreds of branches at rival banks are being closed each year, and customers are shunning the teller and choosing the mobile app.
    — David Benoit, WSJ, 13 Mar. 2024
  • And quotes from the Prime Minister referring to violent passages in the Bible about the need to slaughter all people in a rival kingdom?
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2023
  • Now the two men were in direct competition: doing the same job at Chicago’s two great rival papers.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 17 Nov. 2023
  • He was told by staff that it had been taken over by soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces, one of two rival factions fighting for control of Sudan.
    — Helena Skinner, ABC News, 4 June 2023
  • Boaz returns home Friday for a region matchup with rival Guntersville.
    — Preps, al, 15 Sep. 2023
  • Hundreds of inmates have been killed in brutal prison riots between these rival gangs.
    — Ana Canizares, CNN, 11 Aug. 2023
  • That fame turned on its head in late 2022, after rival Binance suddenly walked back on a deal to buy FTX and as investors grew suspicious of the exchange.
    — Brian Bushard, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
  • For decades, Soros’s moves were scrutinized, followed and sometimes even imagined by rival traders.
    — WSJ, 12 June 2023
  • There, two rival groups clashed as loyalists to Eritrea’s government held a meeting in a venue that was attacked.
    — Kendrick Marshall, Charlotte Observer, 23 Feb. 2024
  • Roving bands needed a way to speak surreptitiously in the presence of law enforcement, a rival group, or a mark.
    — Caleb Madison, The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2023
  • The market cap of tether—the world’s largest stablecoin—has surpassed its all-time high set in May of last year as rival tokens continued to lose market share.
    — WSJ, 1 June 2023
  • The rival campaigns met with a consortium of megadonors, including Crow, in Dallas this month hoping to leap-frog the field to become the top alternative to Trump.
    — Katherine Doyle, NBC News, 18 Oct. 2023
  • The apology is part of a grim series of events for Michigan State’s football program, which lost Saturday night’s game against its rival Michigan by a 49-0 score.
    — Jacob Lev, CNN, 22 Oct. 2023
  • But, hey, Devi, should live a little and why not, with your academic enemy turned rival turned friend back to enemy turned friend lover?
    — Hilary Lewis, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 June 2023
  • That praise, evidently, does not sit well with some rival cartel members.
    — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Nov. 2023
  • Gonzalez told the jury that Huerta was a gang member and alleged that the driver who pulled over and confronted Huerta was a rival gang member.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Dec. 2023
  • The eighty-some houses were split north/south into two rival camps, which existed in a state of near-permanent hostility.
    — Rick Steves, Chicago Tribune, 30 Jan. 2024
  • Under the terms of the deal with Spirit, JetBlue will need to pay $470 million to the rival carrier and its shareholders if the merger isn’t completed for antitrust reasons.
    — Madlin Mekelburg, Fortune, 16 Jan. 2024
  • The rival platform is popular enough that its users flooded congressional phone lines earlier this month when prompted to by the app.
    — Amrita Khalid, The Verge, 28 Mar. 2024
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rival

3 of 3 verb
  • The new museum will rival the largest in the world.
  • The company manufactures paper that rivals the world's best.
  • This rivals some name-brand earbuds that are five-times the price.
    — Tim Chan, Variety, 23 Mar. 2024
  • If Wall Street is correct, the weight loss drugs will rival some of the best selling drugs of all time.
    — WSJ, 26 Sep. 2023
  • For now, the star power won’t come close to rivaling Clark or Reese.
    — Dan Woike, Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2024
  • But her journey has had enough loops to rival a theme park ride.
    — Amel Mukhtar, Vogue, 29 Mar. 2023
  • His celery was long and firm and one radish rivaled a baseball in size.
    — Blake Nelson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Feb. 2024
  • For game-day revelers across the South, the food rivals the football.
    — Jane Borden, Southern Living, 21 Aug. 2023
  • The mid- to late ‘80s had a run that rivals the golden era ‘90s, without question.
    — Spin Staff, Spin, 5 Sep. 2023
  • There’s also a group of younger firms that have achieved a level of success to rival the old guard.
    — Byluisa Beltran, Fortune, 31 July 2023
  • Always present is a raw bar that rivals those on either coast.
    — Elazar Sontag, Bon Appétit, 13 Sep. 2023
  • After a stint in jail for the assault, the young man seeks revenge, and opens a restaurant to rival the people who wronged him.
    — Milan Polk, Men's Health, 28 Apr. 2023
  • Editor in chief Jacqui Gifford shares what's new, why the hotel scene rivals Paris, and how to plan your trip.
    — Jacqui Gifford, Travel + Leisure, 16 Nov. 2023
  • Asia’s emerging spy pacts are much newer and will likely take time to rival the Five Eyes.
    — Time, 5 Oct. 2023
  • Dozens killed as army and rivals battle for control of Sudan.
    — Laura Blasey, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2023
  • The show, rumored to have a budget to rival that of Game of Thrones, is a slick, dark, and tense reflection of the anxieties of the very-recent past.
    — Leah Chernikoff, Harper's BAZAAR, 12 July 2023
  • Sharing a side of the bracket with the Bombers will be No. 4 Elder who handed the conference rivals their first loss on April 28.
    — Alex Harrison, The Enquirer, 3 May 2023
  • There are few who rival Doja Cat’s witty antics and bizarre sense of style, and that’s why the internet can’t get enough.
    — Kyle Lamar Rice, Rolling Stone, 12 Sep. 2023
  • The whale may have been the largest animal of all time, a giant that rivals or even exceeds the proportions of today’s blue whale.
    — Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Nov. 2023
  • Gone are the days when Hong Kong rivaled New York as the top international fundraising venue.
    — WSJ, 3 Jan. 2024
  • This is one of Crete’s most beloved grapes—a versatile white that the island hopes will soon rival the Assyrtiko.
    — Chadner Navarro, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Inevitably, when rehearsals for Hamlet began, the level of intrigue among the cast rivaled that of the Danish court.
    — Hayley Maitland, Vogue, 3 Apr. 2023
  • Oklahoma had its first losing record since 1998 and its worst loss ever to rival Texas.
    — Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY, 7 Aug. 2023
  • The murmurs of delight throughout, and cheers at curtain call, might rival Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
    — Celia Wren, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2023
  • The beauty of the mathematics rivals the beauty of the designs themselves.
    — Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2023
  • Both of our test cars had enough delectable extras to rival a Rolls-Royce.
    — Rich Ceppos, Car and Driver, 10 Aug. 2023
  • There’s more at stake than just billionaire rankings and revenue growth that now rivals US Big Tech.
    — Ksenia Galouchko, Fortune, 4 June 2023
  • But there’s one market that seems to be rivaling San Francisco, and that’s Seattle.
    — Alena Botros, Fortune, 8 Aug. 2023
  • India's decade-plus run at home has rivalled all-conquering Australia's - arguably the greatest team of all time - record from their heyday of the 2000s.
    — Tristan Lavalette, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
  • Hong Kong’s could well rival either, and there’s no better place to experience it than from a suite at the Rosewood Hotel.
    — Cnt Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 20 Dec. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rival.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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