Rivalry

How to spell rivalry

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce rivalry

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rivalry mean?

1. nounCompetition or ongoing contest between people, teams, or organisations seeking the same goal.

Rivalry in a sentence

• The long-standing rivalry between the two companies drove prices down for customers.

• Friendly rivalry between the siblings pushed them both to study harder.

Where does rivalry come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin rivalis, which originally described a person who used the same stream or watercourse as another. That adjective grew from rivus, the plain Latin word for a brook or small stream, and the connection is surprisingly literal: people who drew water from the same river were neighbours forced into competition over a shared and limited resource, so rivalis came to mean a competitor or someone with a rival claim. Latin passed the idea into French and then into English, where 'rival' appeared as a noun in the late 1500s for one who competes with another. The abstract noun 'rivalry', built by adding the English suffix -ry to denote a state or condition, followed shortly after to name the competition itself. Knowing that the root is rivus, a stream, helps fix the spelling: it is riv-, not 'rev-', and the word keeps a single 'l' before the -ry ending.

How the word is built

• rival (from Latin rivalis: one who shares a stream)
• -ry (noun suffix denoting a state or condition)