Other forms: competed, competing, competes
To compete is to try to beat others at the same goal or game. Compete for a place, compete against the best, three companies competing.
The prepositions matter: compete with or against a rival, compete for a prize, compete in an event. Cannot compete means being outmatched: small shops cannot compete on price. Note competition, which means both the activity and the rivals themselves — study the competition; competitive, which describes both a market and a person; and competitor. Compete is not related to competent, though they look as if they should be.
1verbcompeteTo try to beat others at the same goal or game.
“Athletes from all over the world will compete in the games this summer.”
compete is a striving against others.
Latin competere meant to come together or agree, from com- plus petere, to seek. The sense of striving against each other developed in late Latin from the idea of two people seeking the same thing at once.
Proto-Indo-European
*peth₂-
Latin
competō — to coincide, to be equal to, to be capable of
Middle French
competer
English, today
compete
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French competer, from Latin competō (“to coincide, to be equal to, to be capable of”), from com- (“with”) + petō (“to seek; to aim for, strive for”). Compare Latin competītor (“competitor”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA