Word.ws English Dictionary

frienemy

/ˈfɹɛnəmi/

frienemy is the alternative form 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 frienemy

pluralfrienemies

Questions about frienemy

What is frienemy the alternative form of?
Frienemy is the alternative form of frenemy.
How do you pronounce frienemy?
Frienemy is pronounced /ˈfɹɛnəmi/.

Words near frienemy in the dictionary

  1. friendzoner
  2. friendzoners
  3. friendzones
  4. friendzoning
  5. frienemies
  6. frienemy
  7. frienemyship
  8. frienemyships
  9. frienvy
  10. frier
  11. Friern Barnet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: frienemy (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: “frienemy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frienemy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.