Candidate and Opponent

Candidate

Candidate noun - One who seeks an office, honor, position, or award.

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Opponent and candidate are semantically related In some cases you can use "Opponent" instead a noun "Candidate".

Nearby Words: candidacy, candidature, candida

Opponent noun - One that takes a position opposite another in a competition or conflict.

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Candidate and opponent are semantically related in person with whom one competes topic. You can use "Candidate" instead a noun "Opponent".

good	good candidate	good opponent
female	female candidate	female opponent
certain	certain candidate	certain opponent
current	current candidate	current opponent
Other adjectives: original, single, strong, real, male, serious, potential, main, new, major, defeated, political, possible, former, final, primary, next, last, Republican, strongest.

There was a real case some years ago where an individual ran as the "Literal Democrat candidate" and drew away just enough votes from the official candidate of the Liberal Democratic Party to throw the election to his opponent.

Source: Loophole Abuse / Real Life Law
A 2012 candidate for the Maine state senate was actually attacked by her opponent for playing World of Warcraft.

Source: One Of Us / Political Geeks
A 2012 political ad for US Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra has a broken-English-speaking Chinese girl thanking his political opponent for helping the Chinese economy.

Source: China Takes Over the World

Cite this Source

Opponent and Candidate. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 15, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/candidate/opponent

Candidate & Opponent. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/candidate/opponent>.

Opponent or Candidate. 2016. Accessed August 15, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/candidate/opponent.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "candidate" and "opponent" have occurred on timeline