adversary
/ˈæd.və.sɛɹi/noun
adversary is spelled A-D-V-E-R-S-A-R-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is advesary: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 35 of all searches for the word. Adversary is a noun meaning “A person, group, or thing that opposes or attacks another person or group; an opponent or rival”. The plural of adversary is adversaries.
How many letters and syllables are in adversary?
| Letters | 9: A-D-V-E-R-S-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.9 times per million words; the 19,825th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, advesary, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell adversary?
Adversary is spelled A-D-V-E-R-S-A-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 35 of the searches for adversary in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is adversary?
Adversary appears 1.9 times per million words in written English, the 19,825th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce adversary?
- UK /ˈæd.və.sɛɹi/
- UK /ˈæd.və.s(ə)ɹi/
- UK /ædˈvɜː.sə.ɹi/
Adversary has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-adversary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of adversary
- adversaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does adversary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person, group, or thing that opposes or attacks another person or group; an opponent or rival.
He prepared to fight his adversary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Adversary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense opponent:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | adversaire, ennemi, ennemie |
| German | Gegner, Gegnerin, Widersacher, Widersacherin, Gegenspieler, Gegenspielerin |
| Portuguese | adversário, adversária |
| Spanish | adversario, adversaria |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does adversary come from?
From Middle English adversarie, from Anglo-Norman aversaire (in Wace's Life of Saint Margaret) and Old French aversier, aversaire (French adversaire), from Latin adversārius, from adversus (“turned toward”). By surface analysis, adverse + -ary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).