enemy

[ en-uh-mee ]

noun

, plural en·e·mies.

1. 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

2. an armed foe; an opposing military force:

   The army attacked the enemy at dawn.

   Antonyms: ally

3. a hostile nation or state.
4. a citizen of such a state.
5. enemies, persons, nations, etc., that are hostile to one another:

   Let's make up and stop being enemies.

6. something harmful or prejudicial:

   His unbridled ambition is his worst enemy.

7. the Enemy, the Devil; Satan.

adjective

1. belonging to a hostile power or to any of its nationals:

   enemy property.

2. Obsolete. inimical; ill-disposed.

enemy

/ ˈɛnəmɪ /

noun

1. a person hostile or opposed to a policy, cause, person, or group, esp one who actively tries to do damage; opponent
2. 1. an armed adversary; opposing military force
   2. ( as modifier )

      enemy aircraft

3. 1. a hostile nation or people
   2. ( as modifier )

      an enemy alien

4. something that harms or opposes; adversary

   courage is the enemy of failure

Grammar Note

See collective noun.

Other Words From

• non·ene·my noun plural nonenemies

Word History and Origins

Origin of enemy¹

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”; amicable

Word History and Origins

Origin of enemy¹

C13: from Old French enemi, from Latin inimīcus hostile, from in- ¹+ amīcus friend

Synonym Study

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 ).

Example Sentences

You and your enemy each had 100 soldiers to distribute, any way you liked, to fight at any of the 13 castles.

From FiveThirtyEight

He will stand up to our enemies like Putin and aid our allies.

From Washington Blade

You and your enemy each have 100 soldiers to distribute, any way you like, to fight at any of the 13 castles.

From FiveThirtyEight

An app could react more quickly than a human to what an enemy aircraft does, for example.

From Fortune

Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines even threatened to treat citizens who defied lockdown orders as enemy soldiers and shoot them.

From Fortune

But the enemy of the new emirs is neither the Jew nor the Christian, it is the godless militant defending secularism.

From The Daily Beast

In “Steal This Episode,” the filmmaker denounces Homer Simpson as an “enemy of art.”

From The Daily Beast

Scott, who died Sunday at 49, could go from evoking a Baptist preacher to quoting Public Enemy.

From The Daily Beast

“Do not use complaints, courts and lawyers to beat and to silence the enemy,” the NOA activists wrote.

From The Daily Beast

In the event, the enemy did plenty—far more than SHAEF, or for that matter the German high command, imagined possible.

From The Daily Beast

If the "Y" Beach lot press their advantage they may cut off the enemy troops on the toe of the Peninsula.

From Project Gutenberg

In this situation we waited the motion of the enemy, without perceiving any advancement they made towards us.

From Project Gutenberg

When a man converses with himself, he is sure that he does not converse with an enemy.

From Project Gutenberg

The enemy were pursued and annoyed by a few hundred of the citizens under Wooster and Arnold; the former was killed.

From Project Gutenberg

It was he who first said, If thine enemy hunger give him food, if he thirst give him drink.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• adversary
• agent
• antagonist
• attacker
• bandit
• competitor
• criminal
• detractor
• foe
• guerrilla
• invader
• murderer
• opponent
• opposition
• prosecutor
• rebel
• rival
• spy
• terrorist
• traitor