Competition

How to spell competition

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce competition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does competition mean?

1. nounAn organised contest, or the act of striving against others to win or achieve something.

Competition in a sentence

• The bakery entered a national competition for the best sourdough.

• Fierce competition among suppliers drove the prices down.

Where does competition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Competition traces back to the Latin verb competere, which combined com- meaning 'together' with petere meaning 'to seek, aim at, or strive for'. Curiously, in classical Latin competere first meant 'to come together' or 'to be fit and suitable', and only in later usage did it shift toward the sense of two parties striving for the same thing. The related noun competitio gave English 'competition' in the early 1600s, by which point the meaning of rivalry between contenders was firmly established. The same petere root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'petition' (to seek a request), 'appetite' (to seek toward), and 'repeat' (to seek again), which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle of the word is spelled 'pet', not 'pit'. Because the second syllable is an unstressed schwa, writers sometimes hesitate over that vowel, but linking it to 'compete' keeps the spelling steady.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• pet (from petere: to seek, strive)
• -ition (noun-forming suffix)