What's the difference between opponent and rival?

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.

Rival


Definition:

  • (n.) A person having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
  • (n.) One who is in pursuit of the same object as another; one striving to reach or obtain something which another is attempting to obtain, and which one only can posses; a competitor; as, rivals in love; rivals for a crown.
  • (a.) Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority; as, rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions.
  • (v. t.) To stand in competition with; to strive to gain some object in opposition to; as, to rival one in love.
  • (v. t.) To strive to equal or exel; to emulate.
  • (v. i.) To be in rivalry.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Nor is this political fantasy: at the European elections in May, across 51 authorities in the north-west and north-east, Ukip finished ahead of Labour in 18 and as its main rival in 30.
  • (2) I personally felt grateful that British TV set itself apart from its international rivals in this way, not afraid to challenge, to stretch the mind and imagination.
  • (3) Koons provoked a bigger stir with the news that he would be showing with gallery owner David Zwirner next year in an apparent defection from Zwirner's arch-rival Larry Gagosian, the world's most powerful art dealer.
  • (4) We believe Oisin has a very exciting future at the BBC.” Clarkson, May and Hammond have signed up to launch a rival show on Amazon’s TV service , while Chris Evans is currently filming a new series of the BBC’s Top Gear show with fellow presenters Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Jordan.
  • (5) Time suggests that the FBI inquiry has been extended from a relatively narrow look at alleged malpractices by News Corp in America into a more general inquiry into whether the company used possibly illegal strongarm tactics to browbeat rival firms, following allegations of computer hacking made by retail advertising company Floorgraphics.
  • (6) Pfizer kept up its efforts to get AstraZeneca to the negotiating table over its £63bn approach as it reported revenue well below Wall Street expectations, underscoring its interest in pursuing its UK rival to promote new business growth.
  • (7) Lion cubs fathered by Cecil, the celebrated lion shot dead in Zimbabwe , may already have been killed by a rival male lion and even if they were still alive there was nothing conservationists could do to protect them, a conservation charity has warned.
  • (8) Difficult to see how he could become Iraqi PM for a third term with rival sects and blocs strongly against him.
  • (9) For Argyle the result confirmed their relegation to League One, with the rival fans left to ponder wildly differing prospects next season.
  • (10) In repeated reconciliation talks overseen by the UN, the ineffectual GNA has so far failed to reach a political compromise with its Tobruk-based rivals in the east, noticeably Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army.
  • (11) Aware that her press secretary, Bernard Ingham, a former labour correspondent for the Guardian who understood the range of attitudes within trade unions, had tried to soften the impression that she saw Kinnock as another General Galtieri [Argentina’s president during the Falklands war], the draft text tried to distinguish between unions, rival parties and what the final text (the one she actually delivered) called “an organised revolutionary minority” with their “outmoded Marxist dogma about class warfare”.
  • (12) Rival lender Nationwide reported a fall in house prices of 0.2% in September , the first decrease in 17 months.
  • (13) The company’s London rivals typically spend half as much.
  • (14) Considered one of the funniest men in Washington, he injected wit into the debate, telling his rivals that former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond had four children after age 67.
  • (15) The temporary ban on dollar clearing means that BNP's clients must engage rival banks to send transactions through the financial system in the US.
  • (16) It’s a damp squib, a bit of a nothing result,” a leading energy analyst said of a report that is widely expected to endorse provisional findings released in March , and recommend price controls on prepayment meters and setting up a customer database to help rival suppliers target customers stuck on expensive default tariffs.
  • (17) The Colorado-based tycoon is notoriously secretive and at one point looked as if he was going to mount a rival bid for the US satellite TV company.
  • (18) The letter contains confidential information that could be used by the carmakers’ rivals, he said.
  • (19) You get like three days where you have to show up?” But the younger rival managed to turn difficult questions into an opportunity to boast of his humble background and promise of change.
  • (20) Khan said the garden bridge could rival New York’s high line, a public park built on a 1.45-mile elevated former railway.