Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Opposing |
OpposingAdjective1. Characterized by active hostility; "opponent (or opposing) armies". 2. Acting in opposition to; "the opposing sector of the same muscle group". 3. In opposition to (a policy or attitude etc.); "an opposing vote". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "opposing" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
Synonyms: OpposingSynonyms: opponent (adj), opposed (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Contrariety | Adjective: contrary, contrarious, contrariant; opposite, counter, dead against; converse, reverse; opposed, contrasted, antipodean, antagonistic, opposing; conflicting, inconsistent, contradictory, at cross purposes; negative; hostile. differing toto coelo; diametrically opposite; diametrically opposed; as opposite as black and white, as opposite as light and darkness, as opposite as fire and water, as opposite as the poles; as different as night and day; " Hyperion to a satyr"; quite the contrary, quite the reverse;no such thing, just the other way, tout au contraire. |
Evidence | Noun: counter evidence; evidence on the other side, evidence on the other hand; conflicting evidence, contradictory evidence, opposing evidence; disproof, refutation; negation. |
Opposition | Adjective: opposing, opposed;Verb: adverse, antagonistic; contrary; at variance; at issue, at war with. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours (The American President; writing credit: Aaron Sorkin) Tell me, Professor, can you recall a story from antiquity where two men who are the best of friends, almost brothers, by a trick of fate find themselves on opposing sides in a great war, and then on a given day find themselves facing each other on the same battlefield (Gettysburg; writing credit: Ronald F. Maxwell) Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them (Hamlet; writing credit: William Shakespeare; Kenneth Branagh) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Opposing Force (1986) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | An Army sergeant escorts an opposing forces prisoner of war to a POW camp at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, during Foal Eagle 2000. Foal Eagle 2000 is a combined Republic of Korea/U.S. Forces Korea joint field training exercise that occurred peninsul. |  | Senior Airman Jesus Ortega and Airman 1st Class Jonathan Fisher, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron firefighters defend Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, against opposing forces at their defensive fighting positions during Foal Eagle 2000. Foal Eagle 2000 is a. |
 | Our picture shows the control panel of the installation VEPP-2 with opposing charged particle beams in which they are going to realize collision of electrons and positrons with relative power of two thousand milliard electron-volts, being made at the Inst. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Phyllis Schlafly (right), half-length portrait, facing right, with Mrs. Gladys O'Donnell (left), the opposing candidate for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women at the Women's Press Club, Washington, D.C. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The Patriotic and righteous struggle of the South Vietnamese peoples in opposing the American-Diem block has resulted in both political and military victory. We Chinese resolutely support the South Vietnamese people's righteous struggle. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Date | Quotation |
John Locke | 1690 | But if any one should ask, Must the people then always lay themselves open to the cruelty and rage of tyranny? Must they see their cities pillaged, and laid in ashes, their wives and children exposed to the tyrant's lust and fury, and themselves and families reduced by their king to ruin, and all the miseries of want and oppression, and yet sit still? Must men alone be debarred the common privilege of opposing force with force, which nature allows so freely to all other creatures for their preservation from injury? I answer: Self-defence is a part of the law of nature; nor can it be denied the community, even against the king himself: but to revenge themselves upon him, must by no means be allowed them; it being not agreeable to that law. (Second Treatise of Government) |
US Declaration of Independence | 1776 | He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. (reference) |
Communist Manifesto | 1848 | It went to the extreme length of directly opposing the "brutally destructive" tendency of Communism, and of proclaiming its supreme and impartial contempt of all class struggles. (reference) |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Such local Clearing Offices may perform all the functions of a central Clearing Office in their respective districts, except that all transactions with the Clearing Office in the Opposing State must be effected through the central Clearing Office. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Path of Roses | Carroll, Lewis | Beneath, around, and far as eye could see, Squadron on squadron, stretched opposing hosts, Ranked as for battle, mute and motionless |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | She had seen herself somehow disputed about by two opposing powers |
Hamlet | William Shakespeare | To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms a gainst a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Two opposing beams can treat food that is twice as thick. (references) | |
A major principle of body movement is that all muscles have an opposing muscle. (references) | ||
Movement is possible not just because one muscle becomes more active, but because the opposing muscle relaxes. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Lebanon | Groups opposing government positions sometimes do not receive permits. (references) |
Barbados | Although CBC is a state enterprise, it regularly reported views opposing government policies. (references) | |
Iraq | They generally do not report opposing points of view that are expressed either domestically or abroad. (references) | |
Economic History | Zambia | A number of prominent supporters founded opposing parties. (references) |
Pakistan | Pakistan and Iran support opposing factions in the Afghan conflict. (references) | |
Greece | Investor and consumer confidence has been influenced by two opposing factors. (references) | |
Human Rights | Guatemala | The inmates further protested that they had been beaten by the guards for opposing the regulation. (references) |
Belize | Defendants have the right to be present at their trial unless the opposing party fears for his or her safety. (references) | |
Algeria | The organization also claimed that the Government was staging demonstrations opposing the Amnesty International visit. (references) | |
Minorities | Slovak Republic | On February 26, more than 2,000 inhabitants of Medzilaborce signed a petition opposing the resettlement of five Roma families into their town. (references) |
Political Economy | France | This has occasionally resulted in the head of state and the head of government being from opposing parties, in an arrangement known as "cohabitation". (references) |
Iraq | This referendum included neither secret ballots nor opposing candidates, and many credible reports indicated that voters feared possible reprisal for a dissenting vote. (references) | |
Political Rights | Burkina Faso | Nevertheless, neither of the two candidates opposing President Compaore contested the results. (references) |
Iraq | It included neither voter privacy nor opposing candidates, and many credible reports indicated that voters feared possible reprisal if they cast a dissenting vote. (references) | |
Armenia | The coalition still formally exists but had become almost largely inoperative due to disagreements between the two parties, with the People's Party usually opposing the Government. (references) | |
Women | Mozambique | All NGO's actively opposing domestic violence worked to involve police in education, enforcement, and identifying domestic violence as a public order problem. (references) |
Worker Rights | Paraguay | Employers who wish to oppose the formation of a union can delay union recognition further by filing a writ opposing it. However, almost all unions that request recognition eventually receive it. The official process can take a year or more. (references) |
Burkina Faso | Many strikes were called during the year both by labor organizations to advance worker objectives, such as opposing the privatization of state-owned enterprises, and by the Collective of Mass Organizations and Political Parties to press for justice in the aftermath of the Zongo killings. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FEMALE, n. One of the opposing, or unfair, sex. The Maker, at Creation's birth, With living things had stocked the earth. From elephants to bats and snails, They all were good, for all were males. But when the Devil came and saw He said: "By Thine eternal law Of growth, maturity, decay, These all must quickly pass away And leave untenanted the earth Unless Thou dost establish birth" -- Then tucked his head beneath his wing To laugh -- he had no sleeve -- the thing With deviltry did so accord, That he'd suggested to the Lord. The Master pondered this advice, Then shook and threw the fateful dice Wherewith all matters here below Are ordered, and observed the throw; Then bent His head in awful state, Confirming the decree of Fate. From every part of earth anew The conscious dust consenting flew, While rivers from their courses rolled To make it plastic for the mould. Enough collected (but no more, For niggard Nature hoards her store) He kneaded it to flexible clay, While Nick unseen threw some away. And then the various forms He cast, Gross organs first and finer last; No one at once evolved, but all By even touches grew and small Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade, To match all living things He'd made Females, complete in all their parts Except (His clay gave out) the hearts. "No matter," Satan cried; "with speed I'll fetch the very hearts they need" -- So flew away and soon brought back The number needed, in a sack. That night earth range with sounds of strife -- Ten million males each had a wife; That night sweet Peace her pinions spread O'er Hell -- ten million devils dead! G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Robert Novak | Senator, in opposing the national commission, Vice President Cheney also invoked national security. Let's listen for a minute to what he had to say. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Harry S. Truman | 1945-1953 | Communism holds that the world is so deeply divided into opposing classes that war is inevitable. |
George Bush | 1989-1993 | Enduring animosities and opposing interests remain. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Opposing" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 65.64% of the time. "Opposing" is used about 616 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 65.64% | 405 | 13,877 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 33.39% | 206 | 21,208 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.65% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.32% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 616 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "opposing": opposing forces ♦ opposing forces commander ♦ opposing person ♦ opposing signals ♦ opposing teeth ♦ opposing wind. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "opposing": counter-opposing, gravity-opposing. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "opposing"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Bulgarian | враждебен (adverse, aggressive, hostile, ill, inimical, irreconcilable, opponent, rancorous, sullen, unfriendly), противоположен (adversative, antithetic, antithetical, contrary, converse, counter, inverse, inversive, obverse, opponent, opposite, reverse), противен (abhorrent, abominable, adverse, bastard, contrary, cross, disagreeable, foul, fulsome, ghastly, gross, horrid, loud, mucky, nameless, nasty, noisome, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, pestilential, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, scarlet, sickening, sickly, sorry, sour, squalid, swinish, ugly, unattractive, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, vexatious, vile, villainous). (various references) | |
Chinese | 反对 (Against, Dissenting, Objected, Objecting, Objection, Oppose, opposed, Opposition, thwart, thwarted, thwarting). (various references) | |
Danish | tog paa venstre spor (opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), tog i modsat koereretning (opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), signal for modsat køreretning (opposing signals), modvind (head wind, opposing wind), intervenientes påstande,hvorved denne helt eller delvis støtter en af parternes påstande eller helt eller delvis påstår disse forkastet (in whole or in part, statement of the form or order sought by the intervener in support of or opposing, the form of order sought by one of the parties), fjendtlig groent (opposing green). (various references) | |
Dutch | tegenwind (head wind, opposing wind), tegentrein (opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), tegenstrijdige signalen (opposing signals), tegenligger (approaching vessel, meeting vessel, oncoming traffic, opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), de middenberm scheidt rijbanen voor tegengestelde rijrichtingen (the central reserve/central reservation/median strip/ separates carriageways with opposing traffic streams(last 2 terms deprecated in UK)), conflicterend groen (opposing green), conclusies van de interveniënt,strekkende tot gehele of gedeeltelijke ondersteuning of verwerping van de conclusies van een van de partijen (in whole or in part, statement of the form or order sought by the intervener in support of or opposing, the form of order sought by one of the parties), bermen van de tegenliggende rijbaan (marginal strips of the opposing carriageway shoulders), aan de wederpartij betekenen (to notify the opposing party). (various references) | |
Finnish | vastatuuli (contrary wind), vastapuoli (opposing party, opposite side), vastakkaisten suuntien opasteet (opposing signals), toisilleen vihamieliset vihreät (opposing green), antaa vastapuolelle tiedoksi (to notify the opposing party), aallokon vastainen tuuli (opposing wind). (various references) | |
French | opposant (oppositionist). (various references) | |
German | entgegensetzend (contrasting, subtending). (various references) | |
Greek | αντιτιθέμενος, αντίθετος (averse, averse to). (various references) | |
Hungarian | ellenkező (conflicting, contrary, inverse, opposite, polar, recalcitrant, refractory, resisting, reverse). (various references) | |
Indonesian | penyanggahan (act of opposing). (various references) | |
Italian | opposto (conflicting, contrary, converse, cross, opposed, opposed to, opposite, warring). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 移着 (adhering or embedding of wear debris in the opposing surface), 相手役 (opposing role, partner), 源平 (Genji and Heike clans, two opposing sides), 敵失 (error made by the enemy or opposing team), ''し (game in which the object is to topple the opposing team's pole), 反対論 (opposing argument), 反対票 (opposing voice), 対" (opposing pairs), 対抗部隊 (opposing forces). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たいせい (accomplishment, attainment of greatness or success, attitude, blackish blue, completion, conditions, current thought, decay, decline, general trend, gestation, great sage, ones declining fortunes, one's declining fortunes, opposing pairs, order, organization, posture, preparations, resistance, set-up, sovereign power, stance, structure, system, the Occident, the reins of government, the West), たい"うぶたい (opposing forces), ぼうたおし (game in which the object is to topple the opposing team's pole), いちゃく (adhering or embedding of wear debris in the opposing surface), あいてやく (opposing role, partner), '"ぺい (Genji and Heike clans, two opposing sides), は"たいひょう (opposing voice), は"たいろ" (opposing argument), てきしつ (error made by the enemy or opposing team). (various references) | |
Korean | 반대 (Contraries, Contrary, inverse, Objecting, Objection, opposite, Opposition). (various references) | |
Manx | noi y cheilley (clashing, contradictory). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | opposingay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | o separador central separa os sentidos opostos de circulação (the central reserve/central reservation/median strip/ separates carriageways with opposing traffic streams(last 2 terms deprecated in UK)), vento contrário onda (opposing wind), vento contrário (counterblast), sinais de contravia (opposing signals), exposição em que o interveniente declare as razões por que entende que os pedidos de uma das partes deveriam ser deferidos ou indeferidos,no todo ou em parte (in whole or in part, statement of the form or order sought by the intervener in support of or opposing, the form of order sought by one of the parties), comboio que se cruza (opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), comboio no sentido oposto (opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), comboio em sentido contrário (opposing train, train passing in the opposite direction, train running in the opposite direction), citar a outra parte (to notify the opposing party), bermas da via contrária (marginal strips of the opposing carriageway shoulders). (various references) | |
Russian | противопоставлять противный. (various references) | |
Scottish | casg (closing, stopping). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | suprotan (adversative, adverse, contrary, converse, counter, opponent, opposed, opposite, reverse, unalike, unfavorable, unfavourable), koji osporava. (various references) | |
Spanish | opuesta (opposed, opposed to, opposite). (various references) | |
Swedish | motståndar-, motsatt (adverse, alien, contrary, converse, counter, discordant, disparate, obverse, off-key, opponent, opposite, reverse). (various references) | |
Thai | ซึ่งต่อต้าน (opposed). (various references) | |
Turkish | ters (acrimonious, adverse, agley, Amiss, awkward, awry, backward, backwards, bad tempered, bloody minded, churlish, contradictory, contrary, converse, counter, crabbed, cranky, curt, cussed, dour, face down, fractious, fretful, Froward, frowning, grumpy, ill natured, illegitimate, indecorous, inimical, inverse, inversely, inverted, mis-, negative, off, opposite, perverse, retro-, reverse, snuffy, sub-, unfavorable, unfavourable, upside down, versed, wayward, wrong, wrongly), muhalif (adversary, antagonist, antagonistic, anti, contrary, critic, dead against, dead-set against, defiant, disaffected, dissenter, dissentient, dissident, hostile, objector, opponent, opposite, oppositional, repugnant, warring), karşılıklı (conjugate, inter-, mutual, opposed, opposite, reciprocal, reciprocating, tete a tete), karşı (against, anti-, athwart, before, con, con-, contra, contrary, counter, discordant, facing, for, gainst, opponent, opposed, opposite, repugnant, to, toward, towards, versus). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | який чинить опір, який протистоїть. (various references) | |
Welsh | cyferbyniol (opposite). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "opposing": reopposing. (additional references) | |
| |
"Opposing" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: opsin, opsonic. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "opposing" (pronounced upō"zing) |
| 6 | u p ō" z i ng | proposing, supposing. |
| 5 | -p ō" z i ng | composing, decomposing, disposing, exposing, imposing, posing, predisposing, reimposing. |
| 4 | -ō" z i ng | closing, disclosing, dozing, enclosing, foreclosing, hosing, nosing, Rosing. |
| 3 | -z i ng | antagonizing, apologizing, appeasing, appetizing, appraising, arising, abusing, accusing, advertising, advising, aggrandizing, agonizing, amazing, amortizing, amusing, analyzing, arousing, authorizing, blazing, boozing, bowsing, browsing, bruising, brutalizing, bulldozing, buzzing, cannibalizing, capitalizing, carousing, categorizing, causing, centralizing, characterizing, chastising, choosing, cleansing, colorizing, commercializing, comprising, compromising, computerizing, confusing, criminalizing, criticizing, cruising, crystallizing, customizing, decentralizing, decriminalizing, deemphasizing, defusing, dehumanizing, demilitarizing, democratizing, demonizing, demoralizing, denationalizing, desensitizing, destabilizing, devising, diffusing, digitizing, disguising, downsizing, dramatizing, easing, economizing, editorializing, emphasizing, energizing, enterprising, equalizing, espousing, excusing, exercising, fantasizing, federalizing, fertilizing, finalizing, formalizing, franchising, fraternizing, freezing, fusing, galvanizing, gazing, generalizing, glamorizing, glazing, grazing, harmonizing, hazing, housing, humanizing, hydrolyzing, idolizing, immobilizing, immortalizing, immunizing, improvising, industrializing, infusing, institutionalizing, ionizing, ironizing, itemizing, jeopardizing, legalizing, legitimizing, liberalizing, losing, marginalizing, materializing, maximizing, memorizing, merchandising, mesmerizing, minimizing, misusing, mobilizing, modernizing, monopolizing, moralizing, musing, nationalizing, neutralizing, normalizing, oozing, organizing, overgrazing, overusing, oxidizing, paralyzing, paraphrasing, patronizing, pausing, penalizing, personalizing, perusing, phasing, phrasing, pleasing, polarizing, politicizing, popularizing, praising, prioritizing, privatizing, proselytizing, publicizing, quizzing, raising, rationalizing, razing, realizing, reauthorizing, recapitalizing, recognizing, recusing, refusing, reorganizing, reusing, revising, revitalizing, revolutionizing, rising, romanticizing, sanitizing, satirizing, schmoozing, scrutinizing, securitizing, seizing, sensationalizing, sizing, sneezing, snoozing, socializing, specializing, squeezing, stabilizing, standardizing, sterilizing, stigmatizing, strategizing, subsidizing, summarizing, supervising, surprising, symbolizing, sympathizing, synthesizing, tantalizing, teasing, televising, temporizing, terrorizing, theorizing, tranquilizing, trivializing, unappetizing, uncompromising, unionizing, unsurprising, uprising, using, utilizing, vandalizing, verbalizing, victimizing, visualizing, warehousing, wheezing, whizzing, womanizing. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: pogonips. | |
| Words within the letters "g-i-n-o-o-p-p-s" | |
-1 letter: pogonip, pooping, sopping. | |
-2 letters: gipons, isogon, pingos, poison, posing. | |
-3 letters: gipon, goons, goops, oping, opsin, pingo, pings, pions, pongs, poons, poops, snoop, spoon. | |
-4 letters: gins, gips, goon, goop, goos, ions, nips, nogs, oops, pigs, ping, pins, pion, pips, piso, pois, pong, pons, poon, poop, pops, sign, sing, snip, snog, song, soon, spin. | |
-5 letters: gin, gip. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-i-n-o-o-p-p-s" | |
+1 letter: proposing. | |
+2 letters: postponing, reopposing. | |
+4 letters: outcroppings, propagations, showstopping. | |
+5 letters: bootstrapping, phonographies, pornographies. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Historic | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Spoken 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
