Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

adversary

UK/ˈæd.və.sɛɹi/US/ˈæd.vəɹˌsɛɹi/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,815 of 15,258neutralformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: adversaries

An adversary is somebody on the other side in a fight or a contest. Not an enemy exactly — an opponent.

The word is formal and slightly grand, which is why it suits chess, law and politics better than a playground argument. English law is described as adversarial, meaning two sides argue and a judge decides, in contrast to the inquisitorial systems of much of Europe. The adjective adversarial is now used more broadly, and describing a relationship as adversarial means it has become a contest.

Definitions of adversary

  1. 1nounadversaryAn opponent in a contest, dispute or conflict.C1

    “They had been adversaries across a courtroom for years.”

Where it comes from

An adversary is somebody turned to face you. Latin adversus means turned towards, so the opponent is defined by standing opposite rather than by any hostility.

  1. Latin

    adversārius

  2. Old French

    aversier

  3. Anglo-Norman

    aversaire

  4. Middle English

    adversarie

  5. English, today

    adversary

Built from

  • adversus · Latin — turned toward

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 1 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

adversary in the wild

  • How successful an adversary is at breaking a system is measured by its advantage.

    Adversary (cryptography)

  • The value of forward secrecy depends on the assumed capabilities of an adversary.

    Forward secrecy

  • If an adversary can make the random number generator predictable, then past traffic will be protected but all future traffic will be compromised.

    Forward secrecy

  • Fighter Squadron Composite 13, also known as the "Fighting Saints", is a fighter squadron of the United States Navy Reserve that provides adversary training at NAS Fallon, Nevada.

    VFC-13

  • An adversary is generally considered to be a person, group, or force that opposes and/or attacks.

    Adversary

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the adversus family

adversaryadverse

adversary — used about once every 2,202 pages · #6,815 · point at the bar for the others