Compete
From Latin competere, in its late sense ‘strive or contend for (something)’, from com- ‘together’ + petere ‘aim at, seek’.
OED
I offer this not as a “real” definition (see Typo on the myth of Standard English and no correct spellings), but as a reminder of a helpful alternative framing.
Competition – in sport, in schools, in business, in our relationships – as “striving together” towards something of which victory and defeat are only small parts.
Competition as an expression of our shared agon of mutual service towards flourishing and excellence and away, however fleetingly, from death and mediocrity.