Word.ws English Dictionary

frenemies

/ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.miz/

frenemies is the plural of frenemy.

Meaning of frenemy

Noun

frenemy (plural frenemies)

  1. (humorous, sometimes) Someone who has traits of an enemy and a friend.
    • Painting with a bland stroke, hardly mixing color on palette or canvas, working neatly, quickly, deftly, and a bit hygienically—like an Old World gentleman—over his “spontaneous” projects—indeed, “tickling” his way along, to borrow frenemy Picasso's devastating verb—he [Henri Matisse] seems never...1952 February 9, Manny Farber, “Art”, in The Nation, volume 174, number 6, page 140
  2. (humorous, sometimes) A fair-weather friend who is also a rival.
    • So, we're definitely not going to be friends with Ferguson? Maybe we can be frenemies. A love-hate relationship's the next best thing.2008 April 6, Erin Ehrlich, Six Characters in Search of a House (King of the Hill), season 12, episode 17, spoken by Bill Dauterive (Stephen Root)

Forms of frenemies

alternative formfrienemies

Questions about frenemies

What is frenemies the plural of?
Frenemies is the plural of frenemy.
How do you pronounce frenemies?
Frenemies is pronounced /ˈfɹɛ.nɪ.miz/.

Words near frenemies in the dictionary

  1. Frenchwomen
  2. Frenchy
  3. Freneau
  4. frenectomies
  5. frenectomy
  6. frenemies
  7. frenemy
  8. frenemyship
  9. frenemyships
  10. frenetic
  11. frenetical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: frenemies (page history and authors); frenemy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “frenemies.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frenemies. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.