opponent
/əˈpəʊ.nənt/noun
opponent is spelled O-P-P-O-N-E-N-T. The wrong spelling people search most is oponent: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 28 of all searches for the word. Opponent is a noun meaning “One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to…”. The plural of opponent is opponents.
How many letters and syllables are in opponent?
| Letters | 8: O-P-P-O-N-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 16 times per million words; the 5,121st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, oponent, about 40 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 opponent?
Opponent is spelled O-P-P-O-N-E-N-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for opponent 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 opponent?
Opponent appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,121st 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 opponent?
- /əˈpəʊ.nənt/
Opponent has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-opponent.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of opponent
- opponents plural
- more opponent comparative
- most opponent superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does opponent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
One who opposes another; one who works or takes a position against someone or something; one who attempts to stop the progress of someone or something.
The person who ran against her in the last election proved to be a formidable opponent.
- 2
One who opposes another physically (in a fight, sport, game, or competition).
- 3
One who opposes another in words (in a dispute, argument or controversy).
- 4
One who is opposed or objects (to a policy, course of action or set of ideas).
She was a dedicated opponent of the death penalty.
- 5
The participant who opens an academic debate by putting forward objections to a theological or philosophical thesis.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteOpposing; adverse; antagonistic.
- 2
obsoleteSituated in front; opposite.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate opponent?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of opponent: op.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Opponent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | opposant , adversaire |
| German | Gegner, Gegnerin |
| Spanish | oponente, antagonista , contrincante , adversario , opositor |
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 opponent come from?
Borrowed from Latin oppōnēns (“opposing”), present active participle of oppōnō (“to oppose”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).