adversary

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”).

• (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):

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adversary (plural adversaries)

1. 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:

     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:

     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.

• villain, antagonist

• hero, ally

• adversarial
• adversariness

• adverse
• adversarially