opposing 1 of 2

adjective

as in opposite

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

opposing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of oppose
1
as in resisting
to refuse to give in to I will continue to oppose any attempts to infringe upon our civil liberties

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in fighting
to strive to reduce or eliminate we must oppose ignorance and prejudice wherever and whenever they arise

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 opposing
Adjective
Ella Stiller is their ingenuous aide-de-camp, Busy Philipps a flamboyant investor and Renée Elise Goldsberry as an opposing counsel who has history with Colter. — Maira Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2026 Georgia is eager to see someone else on the opposing sidelines after going against itself for much of the past month during preseason practices. — Connor Riley, AJC.com, 1 Sep. 2026 The effort, which had major bipartisan support, was abandoned in favor of vote pairing, an informal arrangement where an absent lawmaker coordinates with an opposing lawmaker who agrees to abstain or withhold their vote. — Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 31 Aug. 2026 What Hasty built instead compares each coach against the specific opposing talent his players faced, which means a good coach with a bad roster finally looks different from a bad coach with a good one. — Rhett Power, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026 As Buddy Crane, a buffoonish, overconfident opposing counsel who works in house for Acme, John Cena relishes his role just as much as Buddy relishes laughing at Kevin. — Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026 Federal immigration officials have also issued an arrest warrant for Godoy Alfaro, accusing him of assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding or interfering with a federal officer. — Bryan Lynn, CBS News, 25 Aug. 2026 During training camp and the preseason, Reich has used his tight ends in various ways to exploit opposing defenses. — Antwan Staley, New York Daily News, 24 Aug. 2026 The commission has historically acted in a quasi-independent role from presidential administrations, with the president's party holding three seats and the opposing party two. — David Folkenflik, NPR, 18 Aug. 2026
Verb
Hahn said that the opposing viewpoints could have been more thoroughly debated, had the project been subject to CEQA review. — Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2026 The majority of Paxton’s rally focused on religion, cutting costs of living and opposing Democratic nominee James Talarico. — Maven Navarro, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 Sep. 2026 More than 5,600 Hollywood mainstays have now signed an open letter organized by the #BlockTheMerger coalition opposing the deal between the two legacy studios. — Jack Dunn, Variety, 1 Sep. 2026 There’s no opposing charge over the quartz, and the field stays weak. — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 31 Aug. 2026 Among Jewish respondents, opinion was evenly divided, with 45% supporting and 45% opposing overseas voting. — Natasha Mozgovaya, Sun Sentinel, 31 Aug. 2026 In gratifying the left, the Warren Court debilitated the long tradition of opposing judicial supremacy. — Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2026 Other prediction allies – like Kalshi employees who frequently light up social media – have tried to flatten the narrative by claiming anyone opposing them is doing the bidding of the casino lobby. — Marshall Cohen, CNN Money, 30 Aug. 2026 Sincerity and audacity are not opposing forces but complementary ones in this space, and for writers, retro programmers, and other film fans who came of age after midnight at the movies, Curry’s impact persists as its own kind of religion. — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 26 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for opposing
  1. opposite
  2. resisting
  3. fighting
  4. antagonistic
  5. combating
  6. contradictory
  7. countering
  8. irreconcilable
Adjective
  • El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, one of the most powerful naturally occurring climate patterns on Earth, the WMO said.
    — Doyle Rice, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2026
  • For more even distribution, apply half of the seed in one direction (for example, north-south) and the other half in the opposite direction (east-west).
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, The Spruce, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of opposite
Verb
  • Stanley is accused of blocking Rajabi’s car with his body, punching Rajabi’s window and resisting arrest.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 2 Sep. 2026
  • While half of Gen-Z use AI weekly, 48% of young working people now believe the risks of AI outweigh the benefits, and 44% of Gen-Z workers (subscription required) surveyed in one report admit to actively resisting their companies' AI efforts.
    — Michael Chavira, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of resisting
Verb
  • As a result, the Fed’s attention is now fixed on fighting inflation, instead of the other part of its dual mandate, namely supporting the labor market.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 30 Aug. 2026
  • For France, long accustomed to wildfires along arid stretches of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the devastation in Le Porge has yielded rare consensus that its fire safety system is not up to fighting mega-fires brought on by climate change.
    — Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of fighting
Adjective
  • Faced with the dominion of the identical copy, some modern artists chose to celebrate it; others took a more critical, even antagonistic stance.
    — Mario Carpo, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026
  • In Central America, for example, ants feed on acacia trees, a relationship that, at first glance, appeared purely antagonistic.
    — Denise Hruby, Miami Herald, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of antagonistic
Verb
  • Such tools for combating oppressive heat look prescient now, but Stierli isn’t impressed; Tropical Modernism was sensitive to the region’s climate but not to its culture.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 2 Sep. 2026
  • That's the reverse of the Senate race ideologically, in which Markey − a leader in combating climate change − is to Moulton's left.
    — Margie Cullen, USA Today, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of combating
Adjective
  • How’s an architect supposed to address these overlapping and contradictory rubrics, much less resolve them?
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 2 Sep. 2026
  • Žižek’s hot takes and critical interpretations, on cinema and philosophy, are often counter-intuitive and seemingly contradictory, but never boring.
    — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of contradictory
Verb
  • To have any hope of countering China’s industrial challenge, the US needs a coalition.
    — Andy Browne, semafor.com, 1 Sep. 2026
  • The $40 million award adds specialized hardware to an Army program focused on countering increasingly complex aerial threats.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 31 Aug. 2026
Definition of countering
Adjective
  • The rift proved irreconcilable enough to prompt the 62-year-old author to declare a divorce from television on a 2024 podcast.
    — Benjamin Svetkey, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2026
  • The works—separated by over fifty years and irreconcilable in medium—face one another across the gallery floor, forming an unconventional portrait of mother and child.
    — Carmen Rosenberg-Miller, Artforum, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of irreconcilable

Browse Nearby Words

opposes
opposing
opposite
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Opposing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/opposing. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

A List of Most Commonly Confused Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

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

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 4
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

The Longest Long Words List

Stay Woke
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
anagrams on a chalk board
Word Builder Quiz Vol. 2 Pick the letter that when added to a word will ma...
See All