From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcompetitorcom‧pet‧i‧tor /kəmˈpetɪtə $ -ər/ ●●○ noun [countable]1COMPETE WITH/TRY TO BEATa person, team, company etc that is competing with another
Last year they sold twice as many computers as their competitors.major/main competitors
The company’s four major competitors have nothing to rival the new product.2COMPETITIONsomeone who takes part in a competition
Two of the competitors failed to turn up for the race.COLLOCATIONSadjectivesa major competitorJapan soon became a major competitor in the electronics industry.somebody's main/chief competitorThe company's main competitor is Vodafone.somebody's closest competitor (also somebody's nearest competitor British English) (=someone's main competitor)He had five times as many votes as his nearest competitor.somebody's biggest competitor (=someone's main competitor, especially in business)The company's biggest competitor is in financial trouble.foreign/European/international etc competitorsAmerica's electronics industry is keen to fight off foreign competitors.a direct competitor (=competing directly with you)He knew she was a successful businesswoman and a direct competitor.a strong/serious competitorIn the global economy, China is emerging as a strong competitor.a fierce competitor (=very strong)He had prepared his daughter to be a fierce competitor.a potential competitor (=a person, company etc that might compete with you)A merger would also remove a potential competitor in the market.Examples from the Corpuscompetitor• All competitors in Phoenix, public and private, were using trucks that held 25 cubicyards of garbage.• On the other hand, coworkers can also be competitors.• But the company sees stateregulatoryrulesshaping up unfavorably for it, as a would-becompetitor for residentialcustomers.• The airline had withstood the predatorypricing moves of its competitors, and overcome its early loss.• Their majorcompetitors are IBM and Sun Microsystems.• The nearestcompetitor service was transportinformation and reservations, at 53%.• If we're going to succeed, we'll have to provide something that our competitors don't.• We are not prepared for it, whereas our competitors are.• Twenty-seven competitors from around the country will take part in Sunday's monster truck rally.• One of the competitorshurt her leg during the race.• Two of the competitorsfailed to show up for the race.• The competitors in the 100msprint are being asked to take their places at the start.• The competitorstonight come from all over the world.• Each of these competitors has their eye on the £50,000 prize money.major/main competitors• But Britain still has a hugegap to close on her major competitors.• It will now be using the services of Askews, formerly one of its main competitors.• Some of our major competitors actually forecast that they will exceedbarsales by the early 1990s.• How does the level of investment in this country compare with that of our major competitors?• The increase in manufacturingunitwagecosts is at its lowest level since 1989 and is increasingly in line with Britain's main competitors.• Exports have increased by 66 percent since 1981, better than any of our six main competitors, it points out.• This led them into feeling that airlines and motor car manufacturers were their main competitors since they took passengers away.• The spearhead of their sales drive was cooking and water heating, in which their major competitors were the gas boards.From Longman Business Dictionarycompetitorcom‧pet‧i‧tor /kəmˈpetətə-ər/ noun [countable]COMMERCEa person, product, company, country etc that is competing with anotherpeople who have tried our product or its direct competitorBritain has had higher long-term interest rates than most of its major competitors.
