# opposition

Pronunciation: US say "ah-puh-ZISH-uhn" /ˌɑ.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/; UK say "op-uh-ZISH-uhn" /ˌɒp.əˈzɪʃ.ən/

## Noun

1. The act of resisting, fighting against, or being in conflict with someone or something.
   - Simple: The act of fighting against or strongly disagreeing with someone or something.
   - _The proposal ran into stiff opposition from residents worried about traffic._
   - _Years of opposition from labor unions finally forced the company to negotiate._
2. A political party or movement that opposes the party or government currently holding power.
   - Simple: A political party or group that stands against the government in power.
   - _The opposition accused the government of ignoring rising unemployment._
   - _After losing the vote, the former ruling party settled into life as the opposition._
3. The rival person, team, or company that someone is up against in a game, contest, or market, usually spoken of as "the opposition".
   - Simple: The person, team, or company you are trying to beat in a game, contest, or business.
   - _The coach warned his players not to underestimate the opposition on Saturday._
   - _Before launching its app, the startup spent months studying the opposition's pricing._
4. The state of being opposite to something, or in direct contrast with it.
   - Simple: The state of being completely different from something or on the other side from it.
   - _The senator's stance on the issue is in clear opposition to her party's platform._
   - _These two theories exist in opposition, each explaining the same data differently._
5. In astronomy, the position of two celestial bodies on opposite sides of the sky as seen from Earth, 180 degrees apart in celestial longitude.
   - Simple: When two objects in the sky appear on roughly opposite sides as seen from Earth.
   - _Astronomers planned their observations for the night of Jupiter's opposition._
   - _At opposition, Saturn appears larger and brighter through a telescope._

## Other meanings

- (noun) In US trademark law, a proceeding before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in which a party tries to stop a mark from being registered.
- (noun) In logic, the difference in quantity or quality between two propositions that share the same subject and predicate.
- (noun) In chess, a king-versus-king situation where the player forced to move must give way, allowing the opponent's king to advance.

## Origin

It comes from Middle English opposicioun, from Old French oposicion, from Late Latin oppositiō, which translated the Ancient Greek antíthesis. That Latin form goes back to the verb oppōnō ('I set against'), making it equivalent to oppose plus -ition.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/opposition (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).