enemy
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehnuhmeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛnəmi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.
A hostile force or nation; a fighting member of such a force or nation.
Something harmful or threatening to another
attributive
Of, by, relating to, or belonging to an enemy.
A personal enemy
verb
To make an enemy of.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.
Used this way, enemy is a reasonably familiar word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Enemy is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use enemy
- “He viewed lawyers as the real enemy.”noun
- “The enemy attacked at dawn.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An enemy who wants to kill you.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.