What's the difference between adversary and opponent?

Adversary


Definition:

  • (a.) Opposed; opposite; adverse; antagonistic.
  • (a.) Having an opposing party; not unopposed; as, an adversary suit.
  • (n.) One who is turned against another or others with a design to oppose or resist them; a member of an opposing or hostile party; an opponent; an antagonist; an enemy; a foe.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The secretary of state should work constructively with frontline staff and managers rather than adversarially and commit to no administrative reorganisation.” Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive, Health Foundation “It will be crucial that the next government maintains a stable and certain environment in the NHS that enables clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to continue to transform care and improve health outcomes for their local populations.
  • (2) It would strike a blow against its excessively adversarial ways of working, the two sides of a divided house braying at each other across the floor.
  • (3) Two “Belgian journalists” had been in the Panjshir valley of northern Afghanistan for weeks, supposedly waiting to interview Ahmad Shah Massoud, the so-called Lion of the Panjshir, leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, an al-Qaida adversary.
  • (4) Throughout his career he has continued to champion Crane, seeing him as the direct heir to Walt Whitman – Whitman being "not just the most American of poets but American poetry proper, our apotropaic champion against European culture" – and slayer of neo-Christian adversaries such as "the clerical TS Eliot" and the old New Critics, who were and are anathema to Bloom, unresting defender of the Romantic tradition.
  • (5) After briefly discussing the limitations of expert testimony and the adversarial demands of the judicial system, the author concludes that the insanity defense should be retained but altered, and that psychiatrists should bear the burdens of advocating for the mentally ill.
  • (6) Nonmasculine individuals perceived the adversary more positively than masculine individuals regardless of strategy of resolution.
  • (7) The study was designed to test whether men and women identifying with a masculine stereotype differ in their perception of a confederate (adversary) who displays either an empathetic or aggressive role in resolving a disagreement over social issues.
  • (8) Valls’ stance and the perceived zig-zagging of Hollande, who before his election promised that his only adversary was the world of finance and then shifted to a pro-business stance, have created cracks within the Socialist party.
  • (9) Trump had long been cagey about participating in Thursday’s debate because of adversarial questioning from anchor Megyn Kelly in the first debate.
  • (10) I think it’s okay as a Catholic to get my guidance as a Catholic from the Pope but certainly not economic policy or environmental policy.” Trump has previously questioned the faith of another adversary, Ted Cruz, saying: “You gotta remember, in all fairness, to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, OK?” Cruz’s father is an evangelical pastor who emigrated from Cuba, and the senator has pursued extremely religious voters throughout his campaign.
  • (11) China says its space programme is for peaceful purposes, but the US Defense Department has highlighted its increasing capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed to prevent adversaries from using space-based assets in a crisis.
  • (12) The beneficial cardioprotective effects of estrogens are attenuated by estrogen overdosing (causing hypertriglyceridemia), the use of synthetic instead of natural estrogen products (increased incidence of adversary effects) and especially by use of inappropriate progestins.
  • (13) To the surprise of many, the group quickly controlled towns and villages that were home to some of the group's most powerful adversaries, including Jabhat al-Nusra and locally rooted tribal militias.
  • (14) They also suggest that litigation may function as a coping response for patients who are distressed by the adversarial nature of the Worker's Compensation system.
  • (15) "Only the retention of our independent deterrent makes clear to any adversary that the devastating cost of an attack on the UK or its allies will always be far greater than anything it might hope to gain."
  • (16) Most of the consultative medical reports, insurance carriers' and claimants', veered on the adversarial and favored the respective interested party.
  • (17) It would be a grave mistake to write laws that treat security agencies like adversaries.
  • (18) "Of course Jacques Chirac is our adversary in the democratic arena, but Jean-Marie Le Pen is a danger for the republic ... we will vote Chirac."
  • (19) Regulation is a common adversary; small banks say they feel the costs of compliance with banking regulations more keenly than giant banks with well-funded staff.
  • (20) The process is not adversarial – attorneys for Wilson will not be allowed to join proceedings.

Opponent


Definition:

  • (a.) Situated in front; opposite; hence, opposing; adverse; antagonistic.
  • (n.) One who opposes; an adversary; an antagonist; a foe.
  • (n.) One who opposes in a disputation, argument, or other verbal controversy; specifically, one who attacks some theirs or proposition, in distinction from the respondent, or defendant, who maintains it.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Certainly, Saunders did not land a single blow that threatened to stop his opponent, although he took quite a few himself that threatened his titles in the final few rounds.
  • (2) The odds are that Zuckerberg will one day face an opponent that can't be bought."
  • (3) He has also been a vocal opponent of gay marriage, appearing on the Today programme in the run-up to the same-sex marriage bill to warn that it would "cause confusion" – and asking in a Spectator column, after it was passed, "if the law will eventually be changed to allow one to marry one's dog".
  • (4) He is not the only jailed or exiled opponent of the CCP.
  • (5) After the impact … I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent,” he said in his submission to the panel, which met on Wednesday, a day after Uruguay had beaten Italy 1-0 in a decisive group-stage match.
  • (6) Free speech has protected hate speech, and opponents of censorship have consistantly defended the rights of unscrupulous populists and incendiarists.
  • (7) Arsenal’s 10 men fall at the first hurdle against Dinamo Zagreb Read more This win, even against such feeble opponents, was celebrated, with the locals chorusing their manager’s name amid a wave of relief given so much of the team’s domestic campaign to date has been dismal.
  • (8) The phrase “self-inflicted blow” was one he used repeatedly, along with the word “glib” – applied to his Vote Leave opponents.
  • (9) His teacher was the charismatic Father Matta el-Meskin (Matthew the Poor), later to become an opponent.
  • (10) We have to improve our playing style and beat our opponents more easily.” Van Gaal was also careful to provide an exact statement on the England full-back Luke Shaw, who suffered an ankle injury against Arsenal.
  • (11) In a single letter in February 2005, Charles urged a badger cull to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis – damning opponents to the cull as “intellectually dishonest”; lobbied for his preferred person to be appointed to crack down on the mistreatment of farmers by supermarkets; proposed his own aide to brief Downing Street on the design of new hospitals; and urged Blair to tackle an EU directive limiting the use of herbal alternative medicines in the UK.
  • (12) The typical balance of power on Capitol Hill over surveillance is such that opponents of renewing Section 702 face strong political headwinds.
  • (13) Around the same time Kadyrov said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oligarch who became an opponent of Putin and now resides in Switzerland after spending a decade in prison, was now his “personal enemy”.
  • (14) A number of MPs and senior party figures supported a wrecking amendment that would have robbed the motion of its primary purpose, opponents said.
  • (15) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Trump ‘sways malevolently’ behind Hillary Clinton Instead, he began the night by assembling a group of women in a press conference to revisit alleged sexual assaults by Bill Clinton, before confronting his opponent hardest on her private email server.
  • (16) But what was, perhaps, even more fun than a win in the offing was that the desperation of opponents of same-sex marriage leading up to today’s argument in Obergefell v Hodges was palpable.
  • (17) But pipeline opponents say that by moving beetles from the Nebraska sandhills and mowing miles of grass where the insects once lived, TransCanada has illegally begun construction on the project.
  • (18) Despite mounting criticism during the Duma campaign, both supporters and opponents acknowledge his perceived achievement in restoring Russia's standing in the world following Boris Yeltsin's chaotic 1990s decade.
  • (19) These differences in hormonal responses to the fight are attributed to the more aggressive behavior displayed by the victorious opponents (winners) over their defeated competitors (losers).
  • (20) Koji Uehara, the one without a beard, just picked up from where he left off in the regular season, and continued to destroy opponents.