Difference Between Rival And Enemy

Rival vs Enemy

As per the oxford dictionary a rival is a person competing with another and an enemy is person actively hostile to another often hostile nations or army.

Rival in the sense of the word can be anyone. There is necessarily no hostility between rivals just competition. The most well known of the rivalries is the sibling rivalries where one or more siblings compete against each other initially for the parents attention and love and later in life generally takes the shape of just competition in everything. These siblings, however, cannot be called enemies. A very popular arab saying sums up this rivalry very well. It says ‘I against my brother, my brother and I against my cousin, I, my brother and my cousin against a stranger’. The siblings may compete against each other, however, would normally come together in face of a family crisis. The other types of rivalries that are very common are between companies that are manufacturing or promoting similar products. These rivalries may often result in media campaigns and even smear campaigns at times, however, mostly such rivalries turn out to be very beneficial for the consumer. The third common rivalries is between rival teams of the same sport. Both these teams would normally be at the top of their sport and the reason for the rivalry would be that they would be ending up facing off in most of the tournaments in the finals. Such rivalries are very healthy and tend to bring out the best in the sportsmen and motivate them to give the best performance.

Enemies are very different. As per the definition an enemy is actively hostile against the other. This means that there is a continuing hatred between the two enemies. Hatred is very different from rivalry since it does not allow a person to reason or logic. It would also not allow a person to think positive. Normally the word enemy is used for countries that are constantly at war or on the verge of it. Some common examples of this are United States and Russia during the cold war, Iran and Iraq, India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran. Looking at these examples it can become very clear as to how hatred block our minds. It becomes very difficult for any of these enemies to appreciate anything about the other. These countries may have the best philosophies in the world but when talking of their enemies all the good thoughts disappear.

Summary
1.Rival is a person in competition with another whereas an enemy is engaged in active hostilities with another.
2.Common rivalries are Sibling, Business and sports, however, the most common usage of enemies are referring to countries at war or on the verge of it.

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