Mathematically, what is the opposite of "vs."?

Question

The word that's the opposite is "for." "Vs." means "against." However, sometimes it acts like an equals sign for a conflict. What would be the appropriate way mathematically to represent the opposite of "vs."?

Jay H, I think you have it right!

Probably it means "constrasted with" rather than "against." In conflicts, you hear "Man vs. Nature" or "Man vs. Machine." If you interpret that as "against," sometimes you think that Nature or Machine are antagonists and Man is merely a protagonist. However, the truth is that likely there is bilaterality going on, and Man is antagonizing Nature or Machine as well. In other words, "vs." sometimes suggests unilaterality, which misrepresents the nature of the conflict.

If you see "vs." as meaning "constrasted with," you remove any judgment of who's doing what to whom, and place the contenders in a box without judging who's antagonizing or who's the protagonist--they seem to have multivalued potential, positive or negative.

I love Yahoo! Answers. It helps to pool the group mind that exists amongst many of us, so that we can benefit each other. In Yahoo! Answers, it is Human vs. Human, but in the "constrasted with," not the "against" sense.

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you mean by "sometimes it acts like an equals sign for a conflict." The only time I've ever heard the word "vs." used in a math context is in graphing -- sometimes you'll hear a graph referred to as "one variable vs. the other," in which case, the mathematical relationship between x and y (if there is one) would probably be expressed as an equation, with an equals sign. ("Given y = x², show the graph of y vs. x.")

But in that context I don't think that the word "vs." (short for "versus," by the way) indicates a con*flict* so much as a con*trast* -- we use the word just to show that we're comparing two things "against" each other. So in that sense, there's really no opposite to express.

The link below shows the two definitions of "versus." Hope that helps!

Answer 2

'vs'= against

So i guess the opposite for 'vs' must be a word which unites people.

So, i'm gonna choose a simple word which everyone knows. It's called 'and'. It is positive and i think that is the opposite of 'vs'

Answer 3

Zooroopa.

Answer 4

"-vs"...

the minus sign means "opposite". Whatever you put after.

Answer 5

depends on context, yo have to be more specific

Answer 6

with.
Or
and

Answer 7

"and"
not sure though...
maybe "or"