enmity
Americannoun
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enmities
plural
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a feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity; antagonism.
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(in a video game) the targeting for attack of a player character by an enemy, and the circumstance-specific strength of that targeting for any particular character; hate; aggro: Use the character’s ranged attack to get enmity.
Your tank needs to be spamming “Provoke” at that mob to increase his enmity, or else it’s going to turn and target your mages.
Use the character’s ranged attack to get enmity.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of enmity
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English enemite, enmite, from Old French enemi(s)tie, from unattested Vulgar Latin inimīcitāt- (stem of inimīcitās ), equivalent to Latin inimīc(us) “(personal ) enemy” + -itāt- abstract noun suffix; see enemy, -ity
Explanation
Enmity means intense hostility. If you're a football fanatic, you feel enmity for your opposing team. Enmity comes from the same Latin root as enemy, and means the state of being an enemy. If you have always hated someone, you have a history of enmity with that person. Enmity is stronger than antagonism or animosity, which imply competitive feeling but don't go all the way to enemy status. Hopefully you are a peacemaker and don't experience too much enmity in your life.
Vocabulary lists containing enmity
Lord of the Flies
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Animal Farm
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Romeo and Juliet
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Lee, a veteran labour activist and a witness to the 1989 crackdown, told the court in March he felt no enmity towards the Communist Party and hoped it would reform.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
The two have an enmity that goes back more than four decades, with outbursts of fighting or outright war punctuated by periods of tense calm.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026
But they may mark a more lasting and more dangerous turn toward enmity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Burundi has been a natural ally of DR Congo for years because of its enmity with Rwanda.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
“In her children our two ancient houses will become as one,” he said, “and the long enmity between Stark and Bolton will be ended.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
As music “that transcended enmities to forge a connection between all the people born of this land,” Vargas Llosa writes, channeling Toño’s enthusiasm, the vals is the exemplary art form of a “mongrel nation.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
But its removal lit up social media, rekindling historic enmities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2025
The depth of those enmities, the reality of that chasm, we see the consequence of today.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2024
Civil war enmities have obstructed at least two attempts to send aid across frontlines into Syria's northwest, but an aid convoy reached the area overnight.
From Reuters ● Feb. 15, 2023
It was a “world criss-crossed by numerous patron-client relationships and family ties, in which major centers vied with one another in enmities that could endure for centuries.”
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
