competes

verb

present tense third-person singular of compete
as in contends
to engage in a contest prizefighters competing for the world heavyweight championship

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of competes SpaceX competes with Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI market, though Grok trails far behind models from top rivals. — Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 13 Oct. 2026 Out of sub-Saharan Africa, Cameroonian director Auguste Bernard Kouemo competes with House of the Wind, which debuted in the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti sidebar winning its Special Jury Prize and the Lion of the Future for a Debut Film. — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 7 Oct. 2026 Travel retail is no longer a price-value proposition that competes just with the high street, but also with platforms such as Amazon, Rakuten and Tmall around the globe. — Jennifer Weil, Footwear News, 6 Oct. 2026 But the headliner of the event was Dots, a new desktop agent product that competes directly with Meta’s recently released Muse virtual assistant. — Alexei Oreskovic, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2026 The egregious noise of the two birds competes with that of the white bellbird, which was found in 2019 to screech at volumes of up to 125 decibels and was crowned by Guinness World Records as having the loudest bird call. — Amarachi Orie, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2026 Murray also competes in track and field as a sprinter and long jumper, mainly as a means to help his football game. — Michael Osipoff, Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2026 Visual clutter competes for attention and quietly adds to tension and decision fatigue. — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 22 Sep. 2026 The debate of rebuilding versus shuttering The imperative to close all or portions of campuses potentially competes with the concurrent high priority of providing students with safe, up-to-date, fully resourced and inviting educational environments. — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for competes
  1. contends
  2. races
  3. fights
Verb
  • Some of the roughly 18 locations were chosen, Hale contends, because the city failed to respond to numerous 311 calls for improvement.
    — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2026
  • But Uthmeier contends an overly broad reading of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause has been twisted into a tool to suppress Christians and other believers.
    — Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of contends
Verb
  • The high pressure air in the Great Basin races downhill to the coast.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2026
  • These days, the market is awash in retailers and consumer plays that are leaking market cap as every investment dollar races out into the AI trade.
    — Josh Brown,Sean Russo, CNBC, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of races
Verb
  • As Ukraine fights a larger, richer and better-equipped enemy, Kyiv sees the strikes on Russian oil refineries as one of its few instruments to reduce Moscow’s ability to fight.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Gemma, still recovering from her injury, fights her impulses and stays on the sideline.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of fights

Browse Nearby Words

competently
competes
competing
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Competes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/competes. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of compunction

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All