as in rivalries
an earnest effort for superiority or victory over another
the softball rivals met in an epic confrontation on the last weekend of the summer
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Recent Examples of confrontations
After more confrontations, she was briefly detained by police.
—
Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 7 Jan. 2026
Television news has always had a different approach to investigative work, attempting to engineer dramatic confrontations between the person or institution under scrutiny and the intrepid reporter.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2026
This combination will result in more frequent and dangerous confrontations in the heart of Europe.
—Ian Bremmer, Time, 6 Jan. 2026
That uptick in law enforcement activity has prompted protests, confrontations and widespread fear among immigrant communities — particularly within Minnesota's large Somali-American population.
—Nicole Sganga, CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026
Protesters pushed back as confrontations escalated.
—Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 30 Dec. 2025
The resulting film, Marty Supreme, follows Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), a cunning, ambitious table tennis player from the Lower East side careening through a series of frantic confrontations in 1950s New York City.
—Julien Levy, Rolling Stone, 27 Dec. 2025
New York's courts have become notorious this year for scenes of violent arrests and confrontations with federal officers.
—Ximena Bustillo, NPR, 22 Dec. 2025
These confrontations highlight the dangers our agents face daily and the escalating aggression toward law enforcement.
—Dan Gooding, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for confrontations
Noun
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Anyone who has followed the devastating violence in California’s prisons knows that gang rivalries trigger a lot of the bloodshed.—
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With the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers set to face off in Saturday nights' playoff game, some local couples are hoping love can overcome even the biggest of rivalries.—
Noun
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The facility, which is surrounded by the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve, also has led to separate legal battles in federal court.—
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Soon the scene devolved into individual battles between officers and rioters.—
Noun
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But behind closed doors, the then-couple were facing marital struggles, as Betty claimed in her 2015 memoir, Telling On Myself.—
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The struggles of being a parent and the struggles of your child are so understandably private.—
Noun
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Miley won eight of his 10 ground duels and one of his three in the air.—
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Much like the classic Tom Brady-Peyton Manning duels of old, the quarterback matchup between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen — the two current MVP frontrunners — is can’t-miss television.—
Noun
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The township is arguing that state law regarding government employee protections against lawsuits conflicts with federal court rulings.—
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Similar false or misleading content has circulated during the Israeli-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.—
Noun
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De Laurentiis took all the chaos in stride and was the expert judge for the cooking portion of the outrageous lineup of competitions.—
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The Midwest's best winter fests include big-city ice-carving competitions as well as cozy small-town gatherings.—
Noun
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However, the reality is that peace talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the US and Europe are clearly stalled, if at worse dead with many contentions from both sides surrounding security concerns and, importantly, trade sanctions.—
Cite this Entry
“Confrontations.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/confrontations. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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