Versus definition

vûrsəs, -səz
In conflict or competition with; against.

The plaintiff versus the defendant; Michigan versus Ohio State.

preposition
6
1
As the alternative to or in contrast with.
preposition
1
1
In contest against.

Plaintiff versus defendant.

preposition
1
1
In contrast with; by way of an alternative to.

Peace versus war.

preposition
1
1
Versus is defined as in contrast to or opposing.

An example of versus used as a preposition is in the phrase "the red team versus the blue team."

preposition
0
0
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Used to link two or more opposing or contrasting elements.
conjunction
0
0

It is the Packers versus the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

preposition
0
0
Compared with, as opposed to.
preposition
0
0
Bringing a legal action against, as used in the title of a court case in which the first party indicates the plaintiff (appellant or the like), and the second indicates the defendant (respondent or the like).

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.

preposition
0
0

Origin of versus

  • Middle English from Medieval Latin from Latin turned, toward from past participle of vertere to turn wer-2 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Latin versus (“against, turned”), past participle of vertere (“to turn, change, overthrow, destroy”).

    From Wiktionary

Versus Sentence Examples

  • The date of these additions, and of the Versus, is of no importance, as their statements are incredible.

  • First there is a medical usage - empirical versus dogmatic medicine.

  • While still an undergraduate he formed a league with John Herschel and Charles Babbage, to conduct the famous struggle of "d-ism versus dot-age," which ended in the introduction into Cambridge of the continental notation in the infinitesimal calculus to the exclusion of the fluxional notation of Sir Isaac Newton.

  • Another state could do so, however, and in 1904, certain creditors having given ten of their bonds to South Dakota, the case of South Dakota versus North Carolina came before the Supreme Court.

  • They give no historical account of the life and teaching of their prophet, but rather are, so to say, versus memoriales, which recapitulate the main points of interest, often again in brief outlines.

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Words near versus in the Dictionary