From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcontendercon‧tend‧er /kənˈtendə $ -ər/ ●○○ noun [countable] DSCOMPETE WITH/TRY TO BEATsomeone or something that is in competition with other people or thingscontender for a contender for the titleserious/strong/leading etc contender Her album is a strong contender for the Album of the Year award.
Examples from the Corpus
contender• Nearly all the leading contenders have all been eliminated over the last year or so.• Solar power and fusion power are the two leading contenders.• Sunset Hiker, a winner last time, would be a live contender but a difficult trap position may prove a problem.• If it were, Robbie Fulks would find himself a major contender, right alongside the faux country brilliance of Ween.• The new coach pushed defense, the stuff of playoff contenders.• The Hurricanes kept Covington, and he is a strong contender for the starting job.• Phillips is one of the top contenders for the middleweight championship of the world.• Univel is to shrink-wrap the desktop Unix contender and integrate it with Novell's NetWare networking technology.serious/strong/leading etc contender• The Hurricanes kept Covington, and he is a strong contender for the starting job.• Scranton / Wilkes-Barre hitting coach Jerry Martin is a strong contender for freak injury of the year.• I was now a serious contender for the gold medal.• A serious contender for Vibes album of the year.• Nearly all the leading contenders have all been eliminated over the last year or so.• Over the last week Johnson, a native of West Salem, Wis., became the leading contender for the post.• Solar power and fusion power are the two leading contenders.• We were looking at a very serious contender indeed. 