versus
Americanpreposition
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against (used especially to indicate an action brought by one party against another in a court of law, or to denote competing teams or players in a sports contest).
Smith versus Jones; Army versus Navy.
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as compared to or as one of two choices; in contrast with: v., vs.
traveling by plane versus traveling by train.
preposition
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v. vs. (esp in a competition or lawsuit) against; in opposition to
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as opposed to; in contrast with
Etymology
Origin of versus
First recorded in 1400–50; Late Middle English, from Latin: literally, “towards,” i.e., “turned so as to face (something), opposite, over against,” originally past participle of vertere “to turn”; verse
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One of the biggest issues the case has raised is the topic of personal versus collective responsibility.
From BBC
They might require a few hundred workers versus dozens.
The analyst who upgraded shares to Strong Buy calls the setup “constructively asymmetric,” which is Wall Street for more to gain than lose, and he points to sum-of-the-parts math: Valuing the peppy industrial part at 15 times earnings, North American auto at 10 times, and overseas auto at eight times yields a $145 stock price, versus a recent $117.
From Barron's
Holtz's study, "Bringing up baby: preliminary exploration of the effect of ontogenetic niche partitioning in dinosaurs versus long-term maternal care in mammals in their respective ecosystems," was published in the Italian Journal of Geosciences.
From Science Daily
They will target unfair trade practices such as excess capacity, forced labor, discrimination versus digital tech companies, and subsidies for rice and seafood.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
