rival

Etymology

From Latin rīvālis (literally “person using the same stream as another”), from rīvus (“small stream, brook”).

noun

1. A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
   Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.
   The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you[…] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
2. Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
   As a social historian, he has no rival.
3. (obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.

adj

1. Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.
   rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions

verb

1. (transitive) To oppose or compete with.
   to rival somebody in love
2. To be equal to, or match, or to surpass another.
   But the Waverley is still the best-placed station of any British city, and gives the arriving stranger a first impression rivalled in Europe only by the exclusively watery station approach at Venice. 1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 1
   The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, […]. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess
3. To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
   to rival thunder in its rapid course