archenemy
Americannoun
-
a chief enemy
-
(often capital) the devil
Etymology
Origin of archenemy
Explanation
An archenemy is a main foe or opponent. Batman's archenemy is the Joker, and Peter Pan's is Captain Hook. An archenemy is a hostile adversary. If you're fiercely competitive with your main pickleball rival, you may think of her as your archenemy — even though she's probably a perfectly nice person. Classic archenemies include the evil Cruella deVille, archenemy to the 101 dalmatians, and opposing military generals who vow to defeat each other's armies. The word is derived from the Greek prefix arkh-, "chief," and Latin inimicus, "not friend."
Vocabulary lists containing archenemy
The Very, Very Far North
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Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
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arch, archi (chief, most important, rule)
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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.
Inflation, for central bankers, is the archenemy and the root of all evil.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 7, 2026
Those groups have long provided Iran with a means to challenge its regional archenemy Israel, as well as the U.S., without a direct military confrontation.
From Seattle Times • May 21, 2024
“My dear brother, my archenemy, how did we come to this?”
From New York Times • Dec. 19, 2023
The specificity of his doomsday prophecy should have been a hint that he was fundraising rather than girding for a confrontation with a new archenemy.
From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2023
Request Denied Mark Antony had his sights set on Parthia—long an archenemy of Rome.
From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby
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.
