challenger

See also: Challenger

English

WOTD – 28 January 2026

Etymology

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:^[1]

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.”)^[2] + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns).^[3] 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.”)^[4] (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”)^[5] (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).^[6]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃælɪn(d)ʒə/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃælənd͡ʒəɹ/
Hyphenation: chal‧leng‧er

Noun

challenger (plural challengers)

One who challenges.
Synonyms: adversary, contender, disputer, opponent

Antonym: nonchallenger
- 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:
  [C]ertainly there is no true orator who is not a hero. […] He is challenger and must answer all comers.
- 2020 March 14, Shane Goldmacher, “Throw out the debate Playbook: [Joe] Biden and [Bernie] Sanders to clash amid crisis”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 May 2023:
  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 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^[2], archived from the original on 27 October 2025, image caption:
  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.
1. One who confronts or opposes; a confronter, an opposer.
  challengers of traditional attitudes
2. (games, sports) One who plays against the current champion of a contest or game in hopes of winning and becoming the new champion.
  The champion hopes to defeat his new challenger in the game to remain undefeated.
  
  One child stood as king of the hill, and tried to withstand the pushes and shoves of his challengers.
  - 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:
    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.
3. (chiefly law, obsolete) One who brings a legal claim; a claimant, a plaintiff; also, one who accuses; an accuser.
  - 1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book III]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 117:
    Novv vvhen they vvere come before Appius, ſitting judicially upon his tribunall ſeate, the plaintife or challenger aforeſaid, declareth againſt her, […]
(tennis, also attributive) Often in the form Challenger: a match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals.

Alternative forms

(tennis match, tournament, or tour): Challenger

Derived terms

Translations

one who challenges

Armenian: հավակնորդ (hy) (havaknord)
Bulgarian: предизвикател (bg) m (predizvikatel), претенде́нт (bg) m (pretendént)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 挑戰者 / 挑战者 (zh) (tiaǒzhànzhě)
Czech: vyzývatel m
Danish: udfordrer c
Dutch: uitdager (nl) m
Finnish: haastaja (fi)
French: challengeur (fr) m, concurrent (fr) m
Galician: desafiador m
Georgian: გამომწვევი (gamomc̣vevi), მეტოქე (meṭoke), მოცილე (mocile), ოპონენტი (oṗonenṭi), პრეტენდენტი (ṗreṭendenṭi)
German: Herausforderer (de) m, Herausforderin (de) f
Old High German: urheizo
Hindi: दावेदार (hi) m (dāvedār)
Indonesian: penantang (id)
Irish: agóideoir m
Italian: sfidante (it) m or f, sfidatore m (literary)
Japanese: 挑戦者 (ja) (ちょうせんしゃ, chōsensha)
Korean: 도전자 (dojeonja)
Latin: prōvocātor m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: utfordrer m

Nynorsk: utfordrar m
Persian: چالش‌انگیز (čâlešangiz)
Polish: konkurent (pl) m
Portuguese: desafiador (pt) m, desafiante (pt) m or f
Quechua: tupaq
Romanian: pretendent (ro) m, pretendentă (ro) f, persoană care contestă ceva f
Russian: претенде́нт (ru) m (pretendént)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: изазѝва̄ч m

Latin: izazìvāč (sh) m
Slovak: vyzývateľ m
Spanish: desafiador m, retante m or f
Thai: คู่แข่ง (th) (kûu-kɛ̀ng)
Ukrainian: претенде́нт (uk) m (pretendént)
Vietnamese: người thách
Welsh: heriwr m

one who confronts or opposes — see confronter,‎ opposer

one who plays against the current champion of a contest or game in hopes of winning and becoming the new champion

Finnish: haastaja (fi)
French: please add this translation if you can

match, tournament, or tour of the second-highest tier organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals

Finnish: haastaja (fi)
French: please add this translation if you can

References

^ “chalenǧer, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “chalenǧen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “-ē̆r(e, suf.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ “challenge, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “challenge, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
^ Frédéric Godefroy (1883), “chalengeor, s. m.”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle […], volume II (Casteillon–Dyvis), Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC, page 41, column 3.
^ “challenger, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2025; “challenger, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

French

Etymology

From challenge +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒe/
Audio (France (Lyon)): (file)
IPA^(key): /tʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒe/
Audio (France (Lyon)): (file)
Audio (France (Lyon)): (file)
Audio (France (Somain)): (file)
Audio (France (Agen)): (file)

Verb

challenger

to challenge

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb, but the stem is written challenge- before endings that begin with -a- or -o- (to indicate that the -g- is a "soft" /ʒ/ and not a "hard" /ɡ/). This spelling change occurs in all verbs in -ger, such as neiger and manger.

Conjugation of challenger (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	compound	avoir + past participle
infinitive	simple	challenger
present participle or gerund¹	simple	challengeant /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɑ̃/
present participle or gerund¹	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		challengé /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	challenge /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	challenges /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	challenge /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	challengeons /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɔ̃/	challengez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒe/	challengent /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/
	imperfect	challengeais /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɛ/	challengeais /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɛ/	challengeait /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɛ/	challengions /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ.jɔ̃/	challengiez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ.je/	challengeaient /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɛ/
	past historic²	challengeai /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒe/	challengeas /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒa/	challengea /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒa/	challengeâmes /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒam/	challengeâtes /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒat/	challengèrent /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɛʁ/
	future	challengerai /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁe/	challengeras /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁa/	challengera /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁa/	challengerons /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁɔ̃/	challengerez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁe/	challengeront /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	challengerais /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁɛ/	challengerais /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁɛ/	challengerait /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁɛ/	challengerions /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁjɔ̃/	challengeriez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁje/	challengeraient /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior²	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	challenge /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	challenges /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	challenge /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	challengions /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ.jɔ̃/	challengiez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ.je/	challengent /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/
(simple tenses)	imperfect²	challengeasse /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒas/	challengeasses /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒas/	challengeât /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒa/	challengeassions /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒa.sjɔ̃/	challengeassiez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒa.sje/	challengeassent /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
(compound tenses)	pluperfect²	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	~~nous~~	~~vous~~	–
simple		—	challenge /(t)ʃa.lɛn(d)ʒ/	—	challengeons /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒɔ̃/	challengez /(t)ʃa.lɛn(.d)ʒe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
¹ The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
² In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

challenger

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

French

Etymology

Pronunciation

Verb

Conjugation

Further reading