enemy
Americannoun
-
enemies
plural
-
a person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.
- Synonyms:
- antagonist
- Antonyms:
- friend
-
an armed foe; an opposing military force.
The army attacked the enemy at dawn.
- Antonyms:
- ally
-
a hostile nation or state.
-
a citizen of such a state.
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enemies, persons, nations, etc., that are hostile to one another.
Let's make up and stop being enemies.
-
something harmful or prejudicial.
His unbridled ambition is his worst enemy.
-
the Enemy, the Devil; Satan.
adjective
-
belonging to a hostile power or to any of its nationals.
enemy property.
-
Obsolete. inimical; ill-disposed.
noun
-
a person hostile or opposed to a policy, cause, person, or group, esp one who actively tries to do damage; opponent
-
-
an armed adversary; opposing military force
-
( as modifier )
enemy aircraft
-
-
-
a hostile nation or people
-
( as modifier )
an enemy alien
-
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something that harms or opposes; adversary
courage is the enemy of failure
Grammar
See collective noun.
Synonym Usage
Enemy, foe refer to a dangerous public or personal adversary. Enemy emphasizes the idea of hostility: to overcome the enemy; a bitter enemy. Foe, a more literary word, may be used interchangeably with enemy, but emphasizes somewhat more the danger to be feared from such a one: deadly foe; arch foe of humankind ( the Devil ).
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of enemy
First recorded in 1300–1350; Middle English enemi, from Anglo-French, Old French, from Latin inimicus “unfriendly,” equivalent to in- in- 3 + amicus “friendly, friend”; see amicable
Explanation
An enemy is a hostile opponent, like your sworn Scrabble enemy who vows to get revenge on your last triple word score. An enemy is a person who actively opposes someone or something. The Latin word inimicus, meaning "hostile, unfriendly," is the root of enemy, and it comes from the prefix in-, or "not," and amicus, "friend:" an enemy is "not a friend." When two armies fight each other, they both think of the opposing army as the enemy.
Vocabulary lists containing enemy
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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:
Beneath the battle for aerial superiority, unmanned ground vehicles scurry back and forth delivering supplies, evacuating the wounded or, increasingly, leading the charge against the enemy.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
Lev Stupnikov fed troop locations and battle plans to the enemy before making a daring escape.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Music Against the Night” is the story of two children, an orphan and a musical prodigy, both of whom are born at a time when European culture was the enemy of children.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
The sightings were treated as suspicious by the U.K. military, which deployed teams with drone-jamming equipment to the bases, including the Orcus antidrone system, which can remotely take control of an enemy drone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
We are most definitely the enemy, and they worried at seeing me.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
Nobody gets a quote on air defenses for a server farm unless the server farm has enemies.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026
For John and Adelaide, adults are not the only enemies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
At the same time, bacteria are not simply enemies to eliminate.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
Would these officials be less inclined than Rafsanjani to use mass-casualty terrorism against their enemies?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
But he still needed a lady, a lady to dream about, a lady to receive homage from his defeated enemies.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
