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”). By surface analysis, adverse +‎ -ary.

Pronunciation

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

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Noun

adversary (plural adversaries)

1. A person, group, or thing that opposes or attacks another person or group; 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], archived from the original on 5 August 2017:

     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], archived from the original on 1 March 2022:

     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), مُخَالِف m (muḵālif)
• Armenian: ախոյան (hy) (axoyan)
• Azerbaijani: rəqib (az)
• Belarusian: супраці́ўнік m (supracíwnik), супраці́ўніца f (supracíwnica), праці́ўнік m (pracíwnik), праці́ўніца f (pracíwnica), 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 (săpérnik), съпе́рница f (săpérnica), съпе́рничка f (săpérnička)
• 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
• Georgian: მოწინააღმდეგე (moc̣inaaɣmdege)
• 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 Greek: παλαιστής m (palaistḗs), ἀντίπαλος m (antípalos), ἐνστάτης m (enstátēs)

• Hebrew: יָרִיב (he) m (yarív), אוֹיֵב (he) m (oyév)
• Hindi: प्रतियोगी (hi) m (pratiyogī), विरोधी (hi) m (virodhī)
• 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), каршы (ky) (karşı)
• Latin: adversārius m, adversāria f
• Macedonian: противник m (protivnik)
• 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:

  Iranian Persian: حَریف (harif), رَقیب (raġib), هَماوَرْد (hamâvard), مُخالِف (moxâlef), دُشْمَن (došman), خَصْم (xasm), عَدو (adu), مُقاوِم (moġâvem)

• 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 (pt) 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

  Latin: 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), ҳариф (harif), душман (tg) (dušman), аду (tg) (adu), хасм (xasm), муқовим (muqovim), ҳамовард (hamovard)
• Telugu: వ్యతిరేకి (vyatirēki)
• Turkish: rakip (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: رقیب (rakib)

• Turkmen: garşydaş
• Ukrainian: супроти́вник m (suprotývnyk), супроти́вниця f (suprotývnycja), проти́вник (uk) m (protývnyk), проти́вниця f (protývnycja), супе́рник m (supérnyk), супе́рниця f (supérnycja)
• Urdu: مُخالِف m (muxālif), رَقِیب m (raqīb), حَرِیف m (harīf), دُشْمَن (ur) m (duśman), مَدِّ مُقابِل m (madd-i muqābil), خَصْم (xasm)
• Uyghur: رەقىب (reqib)
• Uzbek: raqib (uz)
• Vietnamese: đối thủ (vi)