"us versus them" meaning in English

{
  "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"
        }
      ],
      "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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",
        "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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"
}