"us versus them" meaning in English

See us versus them in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: us + versus + them Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} us versus them (uncountable)
  1. A state of opposition between two groups, mostly based on group membership. Tags: uncountable Synonyms: us-versus-them, us vs. them Related terms: us against them, us-and-them, ingroups and outgroups, tribalism
    Sense id: en-us_versus_them-en-noun-hrGtsj~X Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_text": "us + versus + them",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "us versus them (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1968, \"Annual Representative Meeting, Eastbourne, 1968\", British Medical Journal Supplement, (7/6/1968), pp. 1–36. p. 24",
          "text": "The inevitable result of disenfranchisement was that the disinterested would become even more disinterested; the schism “us” versus “them” would grow; and special groups—e.g., women members—would feel that they were inadequately represented."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Martha Crenshaw, “The Causes of Terrorism”, in Comparative Politics, (13) 4, (July 1981), pp. 379-99. p. 390:",
          "text": "Is there “us versus them” polarization or ethnic or religious prejudice that might sanction or prompt violence toward an out-group?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983, M. Stanley Whitley, \"Hopefully: A Shibboleth in the English Adverb System\", American Speech, (58) 2 (Summer 1983), pp. 126–49. p. 132",
          "text": "From this social perception follows the corollary us-versus-them argument. Anyone who learns that this marker of identity “offends the ear” joins the select group of those in the know, and will have a criterion by which he can both identify and judge the out-group who “desire to be up with the latest in thing,” and reassert his own membership in the club of those with taste."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A state of opposition between two groups, mostly based on group membership."
      ],
      "id": "en-us_versus_them-en-noun-hrGtsj~X",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "us against them"
        },
        {
          "word": "us-and-them"
        },
        {
          "word": "ingroups and outgroups"
        },
        {
          "word": "tribalism"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "us-versus-them"
        },
        {
          "word": "us vs. them"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "us versus them"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "us + versus + them",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "us versus them (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "us against them"
    },
    {
      "word": "us-and-them"
    },
    {
      "word": "ingroups and outgroups"
    },
    {
      "word": "tribalism"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1968, \"Annual Representative Meeting, Eastbourne, 1968\", British Medical Journal Supplement, (7/6/1968), pp. 1–36. p. 24",
          "text": "The inevitable result of disenfranchisement was that the disinterested would become even more disinterested; the schism “us” versus “them” would grow; and special groups—e.g., women members—would feel that they were inadequately represented."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Martha Crenshaw, “The Causes of Terrorism”, in Comparative Politics, (13) 4, (July 1981), pp. 379-99. p. 390:",
          "text": "Is there “us versus them” polarization or ethnic or religious prejudice that might sanction or prompt violence toward an out-group?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983, M. Stanley Whitley, \"Hopefully: A Shibboleth in the English Adverb System\", American Speech, (58) 2 (Summer 1983), pp. 126–49. p. 132",
          "text": "From this social perception follows the corollary us-versus-them argument. Anyone who learns that this marker of identity “offends the ear” joins the select group of those in the know, and will have a criterion by which he can both identify and judge the out-group who “desire to be up with the latest in thing,” and reassert his own membership in the club of those with taste."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A state of opposition between two groups, mostly based on group membership."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "us-versus-them"
    },
    {
      "word": "us vs. them"
    }
  ],
  "word": "us versus them"
}

Download raw JSONL data for us versus them meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (f889f65 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.