Versus

//ˈvɜːsəs// prep, verb

prep, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To face in competition
  2. 2
    To fight
Preposition
  1. 1
    Against; in opposition to.

    "It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl."

  2. 2
    Compared with, as opposed to.

    "In polling by the Pew Research Center in November 2008, fully half the respondents thought the two parties would cooperate more in the coming year, versus only 36 percent who thought the climate would grow more adversarial."

  3. 3
    Bringing a legal action against, as used in the title of a court case in which the first party indicates the plaintiff (or appellant or the like), and the second indicates the defendant (or respondent or the like).

    "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans."

  4. 4
    Interacting with, especially to record reactions
  5. 5
    Mashed up with.

    "Kiss Me Thru The Phone vs. Last Friday Night"

Synonyms

All synonyms
vacrossadverse toagainstageymat cross purposes

Example

More examples

"It's a comparison of setting the white balance to "auto" versus presetting it with white copy paper."

Etymology

From Middle English versus, borrowed from Latin versus (“facing”), past participle of vertere (“to turn, change, overthrow, destroy”).

Related phrases

graft-versus-host diseaseman versus timenature versus nurtureoffer versus serveplayer versus environmentplayer versus playerpunctus versussave versusus versus themas opposed to

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.