Challenge
Face off
Face off verb - To engage in a contest.
Usage example: eager to face off with her longtime tennis rival
Mutual synonyms
Related pairs
Both terms in one sentence
- There, Green Bay head coach Mike McCarthy was given the challenge of having the Packers face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers, his native hometown team.
Source: Determinator / Real Life - Strippin jokingly refers to himself as a food disposal unit, and the premise of one of his challenge videos is to face off against Smiffy from Hat Films in a burger eating contest, with the forfeit being that the loser is slapped with a half-eaten burger.
Source: Big Eater / Web Original -
Used for the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where the first challenge requires the competitors to face off against four fire-breathing dragons, and the second challenge requires them to swim to the bottom of the Black Lake while battling Merpeople.
Source: Fire/Water Juxtaposition
Cite this Source
Face off and Challenge. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 12, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/challenge/face_off
Challenge & Face off. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/challenge/face_off>.
Face off or Challenge. 2016. Accessed August 12, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/challenge/face_off.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "challenge" and "face off" have occurred on timeline