competitorcom‧pet‧i‧tor /kəmˈpetɪtə $ -ər/ ●●○ noun [countable] 
Examples
Last year they sold twice as many computers as their competitors.major/main competitors The company’s four major competitors have nothing to rival the new product.2someone who takes part in a competition: Two of the competitors failed to turn up for the race.COLLOCATIONSadjectivesa major competitor· Japan soon became a major competitor in the electronics industry.somebody's main/chief competitor· The company's main competitor is Vodafone.somebody's closest competitor (also somebody's nearest competitor British English) (=someone's main competitor)· He had five times as many votes as his nearest competitor.somebody's biggest competitor (=someone's main competitor, especially in business)· The company's biggest competitor is in financial trouble.foreign/European/international etc competitors· America's electronics industry is keen to fight off foreign competitors.a direct competitor (=competing directly with you)· He knew she was a successful businesswoman and a direct competitor.a strong/serious competitor· In the global economy, China is emerging as a strong competitor.a fierce competitor (=very strong)· He had prepared his daughter to be a fierce competitor.a potential competitor (=a person, company etc that might compete with you)· A merger would also remove a potential competitor in the market.
ExamplesEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- Each of these competitors has their eye on the £50,000 prize money.
- If we're going to succeed, we'll have to provide something that our competitors don't.
- One of the competitors hurt her leg during the race.
- The competitors in the 100m sprint are being asked to take their places at the start.
- The competitors tonight come from all over the world.
- Their major competitors are IBM and Sun Microsystems.
- Twenty-seven competitors from around the country will take part in Sunday's monster truck rally.
- Two of the competitors failed to show up for the race.
- All competitors in Phoenix, public and private, were using trucks that held 25 cubic yards of garbage.
- But the company sees state regulatory rules shaping up unfavorably for it, as a would-be competitor for residential customers.
- On the other hand, coworkers can also be competitors.
- The airline had withstood the predatory pricing moves of its competitors, and overcome its early loss.
- The nearest competitor service was transport information and reservations, at 53%.
- We are not prepared for it, whereas our competitors are.
Longman Language Activatorpeople who are trying to do better than each other► competitor
Collocations a person or company that tries to do better than another that offers similar goods or services: · Their major competitors are IBM and Sun Microsystems.· If we're going to succeed, we'll have to provide something that our competitors don't.
► rival a person, team, or company that tries to do better than another similar one, especially over a long period: · The two teams have always been rivals.rival group/school/gang etc: · The fight started as an argument between rival gang members.
► the competition all the people or groups that are trying to do better than you, especially in business: · Our sales figures are 10% ahead of the competition.strong competition (=when the people you are competing against are very good): · The team overcame strong competition to gain their place in the finals.
someone who takes part in a competition► competitor someone who takes part in a competition: · Two of the competitors failed to turn up for the first race.· Each of these competitors has their eye on the £50,000 prize money.
► contestant someone who takes part in a contest, a television game, test of knowledge etc: · The next contestant is Alice Myers from Vancouver.· Each contestant has to answer questions on a variety of subjects.
someone who plays a game or does a sport► player someone who takes part in a game or competition: · One of the players has been sent off the field.baseball/tennis/chess etc player: · He is recognized as the world's greatest chess player.· The school has a reputation for producing top-class football players.
► competitor someone who is competing, especially against a lot of people, in a particular game or competition: · The competitors tonight come from all over the world.· The competitors in the 100m sprint are being asked to take their places at the start.
► contestant someone who takes part in a competition or game: · Contestants for the game show go through a tough selection process.· a beauty pageant contestant
► sportsman/sportswoman someone who takes part in and is usually good at a sport, especially as a profession: · Tonight we remember one of the greatest sportsmen of our time.· The prizes are being presented by sportswoman Tessa Sanderson.· He won the magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award in 1999.
someone who takes part in something► participant formal someone who takes part in an organized event or activity: · This summer's children's art program had 14 participants.· At the end of the conference, all the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire.participant in: · Reyes is an active participant in the protest movement.
► competitor someone who takes part in a race, game, or competition: · One of the competitors hurt her leg during the race.· Twenty-seven competitors from around the country will take part in Sunday's monster truck rally.
► entrant formal someone who takes part in a competition: · Davis was selected from 200,000 entrants to win the trip to the Super Bowl.· The winning entrant will receive a scholarship to the famous college of art and a year's supply of artist's materials.
► contestant someone who takes part in a competition or game, especially one that is judged by a group of judges: · Suzanne was a beauty-queen contestant in college.· The questions that contestants must answer get more difficult as the game goes on.
► entry the piece of work or answer which someone has sent to be judged in a competition: · All entries for the contest must be received by September 11.· Her entry in the "Funniest Photo Contest" won third prize.· Organizers of the Lawson short story competition have received over 100,000 entries.
► involved the people involved are the people who are taking part or who took part in an activity or event: · In court she gave evidence about her torture, naming the officers involved.· Most of the people involved have by now either died or moved away.· Following the riots, the university promised to discipline all those involved.
► player someone who takes part in a game: · Up to six players can play this game on-line.· It's now the turn of player number three.·
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadjectives► a major competitor
Word family· Japan soon became a major competitor in the electronics industry.
► somebody's main/chief competitor· The company's main competitor is Vodafone.
► somebody's closest competitor (also somebody's nearest competitor British English) (=someone's main competitor)· He had five times as many votes as his nearest competitor.
► somebody's biggest competitor (=someone's main competitor, especially in business)· The company's biggest competitor is in financial trouble.
► foreign/European/international etc competitors· America's electronics industry is keen to fight off foreign competitors.
► a direct competitor (=competing directly with you)· He knew she was a successful businesswoman and a direct competitor.
► a strong/serious competitor· In the global economy, China is emerging as a strong competitor.
► a fierce competitor (=very strong)· He had prepared his daughter to be a fierce competitor.
► a potential competitor (=a person, company etc that might compete with you)· A merger would also remove a potential competitor in the market.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE► big· The next biggest competitor, Royal, charges no commission.· Home Depot is a big competitor.
► close· But our economy is still over twice as large as our closest competitor.· Verio currently operates nearly three times as many business Web sites as its closest competitor.· And indeed, the closest competitor a creature is ever likely to meet is a member of its own species.· The closest competitor the whole day was Arpaio, who earlier typed 44 words per minute.
► direct· Only businesses that are direct competitors are excluded.· Local office suppliers, however, are not too worried because the company is not seen as a direct competitor.· For example, the Vines operating system from Banyan, a direct competitor of Netware, is based on Unix.· In particular the company is hoping to position TeamWorks Office as a direct competitor to Lotus Notes.· In a sense, we do not feel we have any direct competitor in Paris.· Hence the mink is not so much a threat to the muskrat population as a direct competitor with muskrat trappers.
► foreign· Once again, we shall be in the hands of our foreign competitors.· They do not control the entire market and are not free from the threat of entry from new firms or foreign competitors.· Latest export statistics show Britain's grain trade with foreign competitors drastically reduced - while imports are rising.· In the meantime, foreign competitors are moving ahead of us.
► international· The United States also became a still more potent international competitor in the 1980S - especially in fields such as computers.· He is a former international competitor and continues to coach athletes and teams to international level in a number of sports.
► main· Exports have increased by 66 percent since 1981, better than any of our six main competitors, it points out.· Q: Who is your main competitor now?· It will now be using the services of Askews, formerly one of its main competitors.· It is the first version of the Microsoft browser compatible with the plug-ins of its main competitor, Netscape.· Tiphook had paid £7.7 million for a 9.9 percent slice of its main competitor.· Today, on most measures, it's one of the top two, Siemens being the main competitor.· Why then, people wonder, is inflation so much higher here than in our main competitor countries?· Its members would effectively have to buy milk supplies from their main competitor.
► major· But Britain still has a huge gap to close on her major competitors.· If the merger goes through, the only other major competitor to the combined company would be Burlington Northern Santa Fe.· Some of our major competitors actually forecast that they will exceed bar sales by the early 1990s.· How does the level of investment in this country compare with that of our major competitors?· The spearhead of their sales drive was cooking and water heating, in which their major competitors were the gas boards.· Price-slashing by Allied and major competitors has wrecked margins, admits boss Tony Hales.· The report would normally comment on the structure of the sector, the sector output, the major competitors and market shares.
► near· The nearest competitor service was transport information and reservations, at 53%.· The nearest competitor to the time wine.· Is the world leader in sales of gin, selling 50% more than its nearest world gin competitor.
► new· But the risks from new competitors and from changing technology or market demand will also be greater.· Steel's ability to grow. New competitors quickly diminished the company's market dominance.· As a result profitability was reduced and this was aggravated by the arrival of a number of new competitors.· The same could happen in San Diego, but even the new competitors are warning against expecting a big price drop.· Sometimes we have competitors who disappear, but quickly there are new competitors who rise up in their place.· Unbranded generics spawned new competitors, including several supermarket chains that also sold Clean Keeper products.· They want to give new competitors more of a chance, even if it means intervening in the market to do so.· Its new competitor, the SyQuest SyJet, stores up to 1. 5 gigabytes of data.
► other· Only one of 100 other competitors had had any trouble at the fence.· On the other hand, the fact that initially g exceeded r would attract other competitors into the industry.· Targeting particular sectors sounds fine, but other strong competitors may already be targeting the very same areas.· While not in a heat Jan would be out encouraging the other competitors.· Whilst doing this you need to avoid the other competitors.· Like other competitors, he also produced a written explanation, but in Scott's case this was a thirty-page printed booklet.· No other competitor in any sport has been as consistently good or as unfailingly good natured.· Inpart, it should be said, this is because there aren't many other competitors.
► potential· It seems that on receipt of the documents, potential competitors were able to consider the implications and appreciate the pit-falls.· Each firmlet offers a single offering to customers, an offering which has a unique set of potential customers and competitors.· Competition Details about actual and potential competitors and their operations. 2.· If they did fulfil it, surely they must be potential rivals, competitors even in the guise of colleagues.
► small· The rule also sets a stiff economic hurdle for smaller competitors.· To protect their investment in the trials, the firms do not make the results available to small would-be competitors.· The process was not unlike that whereby, today, a large corporation might swallow up its smaller competitors.· They often acquired smaller competitors. 2.· It's much smaller than its competitors in Bath or Cheltenham, and it's far less reliable than them.· A small number of competitors at those Games were found to have smoked marijuana recently.
► strong· That said, Home Run was a strong competitor in the market, with a quirky eye.· To be sure, Kirin is financially stronger than its competitors.· Targeting particular sectors sounds fine, but other strong competitors may already be targeting the very same areas.· Five ladies played for the seven-strong county team, and in inter-club matches Henley ladies were, not surprisingly, strong competitors.
► successful· The successful competitor would also receive the usual 5 percent fees on the cost of the work.· One of the most successful competitors of the past decade has been Valerie Hinson, a retired business analyst from Tennessee.· He's Britain's most successful competitor and arguably our greatest champion.
VERB► beat· This new capitalism is a cut-throat enterprise: to stay in business you must not only compete with but beat your competitors.
► compare· At 354 grams, it compares favourably with its competitors which lurch towards the 400 mark.· How effective are our advertising campaigns compared with our competitors?
► face· Waste Management leads, but faces several sizeable competitors.· It faced three groupings of competitors across the world and members of each grouping were reorganizing.· But he faces some powerful competitors.
► keep· The larger a firm becomes the more cost efficient it can become and hence prices can be kept below those competitors.· It hatched certain fire-triggered seeds, it eliminated intruding tree saplings, it kept the fire-intolerant urban competitors down.· And, as the reborn Terminal 3 shows, to keep them ahead of their competitors.
WORD FAMILYnouncompetitioncompetitorcompetitivenessadjectivecompetitive ≠ uncompetitivecompetingverbcompeteadverbcompetitively
1a person, team, company etc that is competing with another: Last year they sold twice as many computers as their competitors.major/main competitors The company’s four major competitors have nothing to rival the new product.2someone who takes part in a competition: Two of the competitors failed to turn up for the race.COLLOCATIONSadjectivesa major competitor· Japan soon became a major competitor in the electronics industry.somebody's main/chief competitor· The company's main competitor is Vodafone.somebody's closest competitor (also somebody's nearest competitor British English) (=someone's main competitor)· He had five times as many votes as his nearest competitor.somebody's biggest competitor (=someone's main competitor, especially in business)· The company's biggest competitor is in financial trouble.foreign/European/international etc competitors· America's electronics industry is keen to fight off foreign competitors.a direct competitor (=competing directly with you)· He knew she was a successful businesswoman and a direct competitor.a strong/serious competitor· In the global economy, China is emerging as a strong competitor.a fierce competitor (=very strong)· He had prepared his daughter to be a fierce competitor.a potential competitor (=a person, company etc that might compete with you)· A merger would also remove a potential competitor in the market.