Translation
opposite, facing; hostile, unfavourable
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Examples
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He led the army against the enemy.
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They could not go against the wind.
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They were staying on the facing side of the mountain.
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The king did nothing against the people.
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The ships were going upstream.
Adversus is two words sharing one spelling. As a preposition it takes the accusative and means "against, in the face of": adversus hostem. As an adjective, adversus, adversa, adversum, it means "facing, opposite", and by extension "hostile, unfavourable", as in res adversae, "misfortune". Both come from the perfect participle of adverto, "turn towards", which is why the same form does both jobs. The variant adversum works identically as a preposition.
Two traps. Adverso flumine is "upstream", not "against the river", and its opposite is secundo flumine, "with the current" - which is also why secundus means both "second" and "favourable". And in the manuscripts u and v are one letter, so the corpus spells it aduersus.
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adversus: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "adversus" (opposite, facing; hostile, unfavourable): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is taught in chapter 4, lesson 4: adversus, aurum, ager and 6 more words.