adversary

See also: Adversary

English

Etymology

From Middle English adversarie, from Anglo-Norman aversaire (in Wace's Life of Saint Margaret) and Old French aversier, aversaire (French adversaire), from Latin adversārius, from adversus (“turned toward”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈæd.və.sɛɹi/, /ˈæd.və.s(ə)ɹi/, (dated) /ædˈvɜː.sə.ɹi/, /ədˈvɜː.sə.ɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæd.vəɹ.sɛɹi/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Noun

adversary (plural adversaries)

1. An opponent or rival.

   He prepared to fight his adversary.

   • 2017 June 8, Maeve Reston, “Trump meets the ultimate adversary in James Comey”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     In the political drama that Donald Trump has created in Washington, he could not have dreamed up a more formidable adversary than James Comey.

   • 2021 March 17, Stephen Collinson, “New US intel report shows Russia, Trump and GOP acolytes have same goals”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     The real bombshell it contains is not the confidence of the spy agencies that Russia hoped to subvert American democracy. It is that US intelligence experts effectively confirmed that for the second election in a row, Trump acolytes repeatedly used, knowingly or otherwise, misinformation produced by the spies of one of America’s most sworn foreign adversaries to try to win a US election.

Synonyms

• villain, antagonist

Antonyms

• hero, ally

Derived terms

• adversarial
• adversariness

Related terms

• adverse
• adversarially

Translations

opponent

• Arabic: خَصْم m (ḵaṣm), مُقَاوِم m (muqāwim)
• Armenian: ախոյան (hy) (axoyan)
• Azerbaijani: rəqib (az)
• Belarusian: супраці́ўнік m (supracíŭnik), супраці́ўніца f (supracíŭnica), праці́ўнік m (pracíŭnik), праці́ўніца f (pracíŭnica), сапе́рнік m (sapjérnik), сапе́рніца f (sapjérnica)
• Bulgarian: проти́вник (bg) m (protívnik), проти́вница f (protívnica), проти́вничка f (protívnička), неприя́тел (bg) m (neprijátel), неприя́телка f (neprijátelka), съпе́рник (bg) m (sǎpérnik), съпе́рница f (sǎpérnica), съпе́рничка f (sǎpérnička)
• Catalan: adversari (ca) m, adversària (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 敵手 / 敌手 (zh) (díshǒu), 對手 / 对手 (zh) (duìshǒu)

• Cornish: eskar m
• Czech: protivník (cs) m, protivnice f
• Danish: modstander (da) c
• Dutch: tegenstander (nl) m, tegenstandster (nl) f
• Egyptian: (ḫftj)
• Finnish: vastustaja (fi), vastapuoli (fi), vihollinen (fi)
• French: adversaire (fr) m or f, ennemi (fr) m, ennemie (fr) f
• Galician: adversario (gl) m, adversaria f
• German: Gegner (de) m, Gegnerin (de) f, Widersacher (de) m, Widersacherin (de) f, Gegenspieler (de) m, Gegenspielerin (de) f, Kontrahent (de) m, Kontrahentin (de) f
• Gothic: 𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌹𐍃 m (andastaþjis)
• Greek: αντίπαλος (el) m (antípalos)

  Ancient: ἀντίπαλος m (antípalos)

• Hebrew: יָרִיב (he) m (yarív), אוֹיֵב (he) m (oyév)
• Hindi: प्रतियोगी (hi) m (pratiyogī)
• Hungarian: ellenfél (hu)
• Icelandic: andstæðingur m; óvinur (is) m
• Italian: avversario (it) m, avversaria (it) f
• Japanese: 敵 (ja) (てき, teki), 相手 (ja) (あいて, aite), アドバーサリー (adobāsarī), 敵対者 (てきたいしゃ, tekitaisha)
• Kashubian: warg
• Kazakh: қарсылас (qarsylas)
• Korean: 적대자(敵對者) (jeokdaeja), 애드버서리 (aedeubeoseori), 경쟁자(競爭者) (ko) (gyeongjaengja)
• Kyrgyz: теңтайлашуучу (teŋtaylaşuucu)
• Latin: adversārius m, adversāria f
• Malayalam: എതിരാളി (ml) (etirāḷi), പ്രതിയോഗി (ml) (pratiyōgi)
• Norman: advèrsaithe m or f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: motstander (no) m, opponent (no) m

  Nynorsk: motstandar m, opponent m

• Persian: همیستار (hamistâr), هماورد (fa) (hamâvard), رقیب (fa) (raqib)
• Plautdietsch: Jäajna m
• Polish: przeciwnik (pl) m, przeciwniczka (pl) f, oponent (pl) m, oponentka (pl) f, adwersarz (pl) m (dated), adwersarka (pl) f (dated)
• Portuguese: adversário (pt) m, adversária f
• Romanian: adversar (ro) m, adversară (ro) f
• Russian: сопе́рник (ru) m (sopérnik), сопе́рница (ru) f (sopérnica), проти́вник (ru) m (protívnik), проти́вница (ru) f (protívnica), неприя́тель (ru) m (neprijátelʹ), неприя́тельница (ru) f (neprijátelʹnica)
• Sanskrit: विपक्ष (sa) m (vipakṣa)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: про̀тӣвнӣк m, про̀тӣвница f

  Roman: pròtīvnīk (sh) m, pròtīvnica (sh) f

• Slovak: odporca m, protivník m, protivníčka f
• Slovene: nasprotnik (sl) m, nasprotnica f
• Spanish: adversario (es) m, adversaria (es) f
• Swedish: motståndare (sv) m
• Tajik: рақиб (raqib)
• Telugu: వ్యతిరేకి (vyatirēki)
• Turkish: rakip (tr)
• Turkmen: garşydaş
• Ukrainian: супроти́вник m (suprotývnyk), супроти́вниця f (suprotývnycja), проти́вник (uk) m (protývnyk), проти́вниця f (protývnycja), супе́рник m (supérnyk), супе́рниця f (supérnycja)
• Uyghur: رەقىب (reqib)
• Uzbek: raqib (uz)
• Vietnamese: đối thủ (vi)