challenger
/ˈt͡ʃælənd͡ʒəɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.74 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who challenges.
noun
One who challenges.
noun
One who challenges.
noun
Often in the form Challenger: a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals.
name
A space shuttle, named after HMS Challenger (1858), destroyed on January 28, 1986 with loss of its seven-member crew.
noun
A steam locomotive of the 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement.
noun
Alternative letter-case form of challenger (“a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals”).
Example Sentences
- "[C]ertainly there is no true orator who is not a hero. […] He is challenger and must answer all comers."
- "Debates are often unpredictable, but it is especially hard to game out how this debate featuring a moderate standard-bearer and a liberal challenger will unfold and how people will process it. Hundreds of thousands of viewers, if not millions, will have been personally affected by Sunday, as public gathering spaces are shuttered, schools are closed and on Thursday the stock market plunged by the largest percentage in decades (it snapped back upward on Friday)."
- "Candidates for a state senate seat race in South Florida in which a spoiler appeared to help Republican challenger Ileana Garcia unseat incumbent Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez."
- "challengers of traditional attitudes"
- "The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated."
- "One child stood as king of the hill, and tried to withstand the pushes and shoves of his challengers."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English chalengere, chalangeour, chalenger (“one who causes injury, or makes false charges or slanderous statements; one who disputes, disputant, objector; claimant”), and then partly from both of the following: * From Middle English chalengen (“to accuse; to accuse falsely or maliciously, slander; to treat unjustly, wrong; to dispute, object; to make a claim or demand; to rebuke, scold; to issue a challenge to; etc.”) + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns). Chalengen is derived from Anglo-Norman chalenger, and Old French chalenger, chalongier (“to challenge, dispute; to claim; etc.”) (modern French challenger), from Late Latin calumniāre, the second-person singular present active imperative or indicative of calumnior (“to accuse falsely; to make hurtful untrue comments about; etc.”), from Latin calumnia (“artifice, trickery; false accusation; false statement; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₁l-, *keh₁l- (“to beguile, deceive”)) + -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). * From Old French chalengeor (“claimant, plaintiff; false accuser, slanderer”) (modern French challengeur), from chalenger, chalongier (see above) + -eor (variant of -or (suffix forming agent nouns)). By surface analysis, challenge (verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ḱeh₁l-, chalengere, chalengen, chalenger, calumniāre, calumnia
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈt͡ʃælənd͡ʒəɹ/
- British English: /ˈt͡ʃælɪn(d)ʒə/