something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc..
The performance test proved to be my nemesis.
an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome.
(initial capital letter) the goddess of divine retribution.
an agent or act of retribution or punishment.
Greek myth the goddess of retribution and vengeance
(sometimes not capital) any agency of retribution and vengeance
By extension, a “nemesis” is an avenger. One's nemesis is that which will bring on one's destruction or downfall.
< Latin < Greek némesis literally, a dealing out, verbid of némein to dispense (justice); see -sis
Use the word nemesis to describe someone or something that always causes you major problems, like the runner on another school's track team who, for years, has been beating your time by a fraction of a second. The word nemesis describes a rival who just somehow seems able to get the best of you. It can be someone you compete against, someone whose skills are nearly identical to yours and yet, your nemesis always seems to finish ahead of you, get a higher grade, and generally make you feel flustered. Nemesis can also refer to something that always causes you problems, like public speaking, the nemesis of those who get tongue-tied when nervous.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What Sinner hadn’t counted on here was a rematch with his other nemesis: the scorching heat of the sun.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
The Academy Award-winning actor, who portrayed Daily Bugle chief J. Jonah Jameson in director Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, was reunited with his onscreen nemesis at the New York Mets game Tuesday.
From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2026
His mistake was to try to destroy a man whose greatest nemesis was himself, and that singular, burning focus of Mozart’s earned him immortality regardless of what his haters threw at him.
From Salon • May 16, 2026
Since then, the population has been slowly and steadily increasing in the Golden State, much to the delight of conservationists and frustration of ranchers who are now contending with the return of their historical nemesis.
From Los Angeles Times • May 16, 2026
And if at the beginning of the summer someone had said I’d be friends with my nemesis, I’d have said there was a greater chance that Earth would be swallowed by a black hole.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
