duel
n. countablen. a formal fight between two people using weapons like swords or guns to settle an argument. Today, it can also mean any tough competition between two rivals.
n. a prearranged formal combat between two individuals, typically fought with deadly weapons to settle a point of honour. In modern contexts, it refers to any contest or struggle between two opposing parties.
The two knights agreed to a duel at dawn.
The championship final turned into a psychological duel between the two veteran chess players.
While the historical duel was a ritualised affair governed by strict codes of conduct, the term now serves as a metaphor for any intense binary confrontation in politics or sport.
From Medieval Latin duellum (“fight between two men, duel”), itself from Old Latin duellum (“war, fight”), which survived in Classical Latin as a rare byform of bellum and was later reinterpreted as “duel” by unetymological association with duo (“two”). May have entered English through Middle French duel.
Often takes the preposition 'between' or 'with'.