How do you use the word "challenger" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "challenger" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "challenger": The flyweight champion contended with a strong challenger. He's reigning champion, and no young challenger is going to take it away from him.

Challenger Meaning

/ˈt͡ʃælɪn(d)ʒə/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounOne who challenges.

nounOne who challenges., One who confronts or opposes; a confronter, an opposer.

Sentence Examples

The flyweight champion contended with a strong challenger.

He's reigning champion, and no young challenger is going to take it away from him.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

competitor competition rival

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The incumbent easily defeated his inexperienced opponent and political ____ in the debate.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The young boxer is a strong ____ for the world heavyweight title today.

Word Origin & History

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).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"[C]ertainly there is no true orator who is not a hero. […] He is challenger and must answer all comers." — 1876, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Eloquence”, in Letters and Social Aims, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 103:

"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)." — 2020 March 14, Shane Goldmacher, “Throw out the debate Playbook: [Joe] Biden and [Bernie] Sanders to clash amid crisis”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 May 2023:

"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." — 2020 November 23, Scott Glover, Curt Devine, Drew Griffin, Scott Bronstein, “A Dark Money Mystery in Florida Centers on the Campaign of a Spoiler Candidate who Appeared to Help a Republican Win by 32 votes”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2025, image caption:

"Roſ[alind]. Young man, haue you challeng'd Charles the VVraſtler? / Orl[ando]. No faire Princeſſe: he is the general challenger, I come but in as others do, to try vvith him the ſtrength of my youth." — c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 187, column 2:

"Novv vvhen they vvere come before Appius, ſitting judicially upon his tribunall ſeate, the plaintife or challenger aforeſaid, declareth againſt her, […]" — 1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book III]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 117:

Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words