Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To strive against another or others to attain a goal, such as an advantage or a victory. See Synonyms at rival.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To seek or strive for the same thing as another; enter into competition or rivalry; vie: with for before the thing sought and with before the person or thing rivaled.
- In political economics, to engage in rivalry in the sale or purchase of a commodity or service; also, figuratively, of a commodity or service, to be open to choice as against some other commodity or service. Thus iron is said to compete with stone in the construction of buildings; water routes compete with railways in the handling of traffic.
Wiktionary
- v. To contend emulously; to seek or strive for the same thing, position, or reward for which another is striving; to contend in rivalry, as for a prize or in business; as, tradesmen compete with one another.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To contend emulously; to seek or strive for the same thing, position, or reward for which another is striving; to contend in rivalry, as for a prize or in business.
WordNet 3.0
- v. compete for something; engage in a contest; measure oneself against others
Etymologies
- Borrowed from Middle French competir or from its source Late Latin competere, present active infinitive of competō., from Latin com- ("with") + petō ("I seek, I aim for, I strive for"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin competere, to strive together, from Latin, to coincide, be suitable : com-, com- + petere, to seek; see pet- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Apple has emerged as the clear mind-share leader and the only way to compete is to focus on user experience (usefulness, simplicity, elegance, consistency) not the product attributes.”
““Once you go unlimited, the only way to compete is to go lower,” he said.”
Verizon Stabs Sprint With Unlimited Wireless Plan - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
“The best way to compete is to sell the best designed, best built, best looking thing you can produce.”
“July 9th, 2009 3: 33 pm ET the war chest that politicians need to compete is so out of hand”
“Because farmers in other countries work at low wages, the only way that small American farmers can compete is to give them regular annual subsidies.”
Farm Subsidies: The Dirty Truth, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“To say that private insurance can't compete is really doing a major disservice to our smart business community which I'm sure will find a way to keep up their profits.”
“The only way the GOP can compete is they need to completely remake their party from the ground up.”
No Clear Front-Runner for Republican Chairman - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“A 63 year old man, with a knee the size of Milwaukee, who can barely walk, let alone compete, is "average"?”
“So I guess the idea of the government health plan to make insurance companies compete is not actually part of the plan.”
“The only way we can compete is with technology, not finance.”
Matthew Yglesias » A Flawed Stimulus is Better than No Stimulus
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘compete’.
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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SPOR - Olympic glossary
weightlift, orbitale, figure skate, speed skate, synchronizer, equestrian sport, bobsleigh, starting block, diesis, ligne, piste, water ski and 521 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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How Are You Today? Vocabulary
Vocabulary list for my book.
athletic, Boisterous, bored, brave, chummy, eager, feisty, mischievous, nervous, playful, compete, satisfied and 5 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for compete.
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