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"rival" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often competitor (10 letters).
Definitions
be the rival of, be in competition with
Word origin
Learned borrowing from Latin rīvālis (literally “person using the same stream as another”). By surface analysis, Latin rīvus + -al.
Used in a sentence
“Chris is my biggest rival in the 400-metre race.”
“Every day is like survival / You're my lover, not my rival”
“As a social historian, he has no rival.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Competitor”5 letters
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