How to Use outcompete in a Sentence
outcompete
verb-
Weeds will encroach and outcompete the grass in the summer.
—oregonlive, 26 Mar. 2023
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Why doesn’t one species outcompete all the others for that spot?
—Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 31 Mar. 2011
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All else held equal, this variant will have a leg up on its kin, and may outcompete them.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 28 June 2021
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The unsuspecting vireo will then raise the cowbird chicks, which grow faster than its own and outcompete the vireo nestlings for food.
—Maura Fox, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2024
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The big question is whether or not Omicron will outcompete Delta.
—CBS News, 5 Dec. 2021
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In prairies, fires clear out woody plants and shrubs that outcompete smaller plants for light and nutrients.
—Popular Science, 29 Jan. 2020
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The best way to prevent crabgrass is to maintain a healthy, thick lawn that outcompetes and excludes crabgrass.
—Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 30 July 2023
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That small change allowed the viruses that carried it to outcompete all others.
—William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2021
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Charles Darwin was perhaps the first to posit the idea that introduced species might outcompete natives.
—Amy Crawford, Smithsonian, 9 Jan. 2018
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Exacerbating the problem is the bigleaf lupine will hybridize with the wild lupine and outcompete the pure native wild lupine.
—Jennifer Rude Klett, Journal Sentinel, 20 Apr. 2023
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Renewables won’t outcompete coal all year round, at least not yet.
—Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 2 May 2019
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Typically, the cowbird egg would hatch first, and the larger chick would outcompete the smaller vireo chicks for food—or simply push them out of the nest.
—Ashley Stimpson, Popular Mechanics, 31 Aug. 2022
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Our best hope is to prove that clean energy can outcompete Big Oil and the Big Tobacco playbook.
—Wal Van Lierop, Forbes, 28 Jan. 2022
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And there is no way that 330 million people can outcompete the Chinese or even compete with the Chinese without allies around the world.
—CBS News, 27 Nov. 2019
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Just a transient visitor or here to outcompete the native species?
—Guest, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2014
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In fact, if left unchecked, honeybees can outcompete native bees for pollen and nectar.
—Scott Kirkwood, Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2023
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First, the big-headed ants outcompete native acacia ants in the genus Crematogaster.
—Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 25 Jan. 2024
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Should a new, more infectious variant emerge and outcompete the others, Krauland says, infections could rise sharply again.
—WIRED, 9 Nov. 2022
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In warmer soils, fast-growing grasses and willow shrubs can outcompete the slower-growing mosses, lichens and dwarf shrubs that were prevalent before the fire.
—Randi Jandt, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2021
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Otherwise, shade-tolerant plants, like red maple and sweet gum, outcompete the local species.
—Jamie Dickman, Popular Science, 14 June 2023
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Eventually, a variant will become so dominant that none other will be able to outcompete it and the pace of change will slow down, Karim said.
—Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY, 21 Dec. 2021
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The filter feeders eat plankton and small fish, outcompeting other fish for food.
—Carolyn Hagler, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 May 2023
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Research on similar products in the U.S. has shown that if there is an intense dry spell, the safe Aspergillus strain may not be able to outcompete the toxin-producing forms.
—Jori Lewis, Discover Magazine, 2 Nov. 2017
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Whether voters in the midst of a boom move left or right, many residents say the strains of change are deep, as farms and ranches on the city’s edge get chewed up into housing, and high-wage tech workers outcompete the locals.
—Kirk Johnson, The New York Times, idahostatesman, 14 May 2018
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Over time, there should be fewer ways for an altered SARS-2 virus to outcompete other forms and undermine vaccines.
—Andrew Joseph, STAT, 4 Mar. 2021
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What’s more likely is that as the number of Neanderthals dwindled, they were outcompeted.
—Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 28 Dec. 2023
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But if that’s the case, why do tangle-web spiders act in ways that might conflict with an individual’s drive to outcompete its neighbors?
—Quanta Magazine, 2 Oct. 2014
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With a similar diet to D. avus, dogs may have helped speed the foxes’ extinction by outcompeting them.
—Mindy Weisberger, CNN, 11 Apr. 2024
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In bull markets, there might be a dozen other businesses trying to outcompete you in almost any sector.
—Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, WIRED, 24 Dec. 2022
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Big-box boom Big-box discount stores like Kmart, Walmart and Target began outcompeting shopping centers in the 1980s because of their low prices and convenience.
—Johnathan Williams, The Conversation, 25 Apr. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'outcompete.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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