Word.ws English Dictionary

nemesis

/ˈnɛməsɪs/

nemesis noun: an enemy, especially an archenemy.

Noun

nemesis (plural nemeses)

  1. An enemy, especially an archenemy.
    • Batman is in constant conflict with his nemesis, The Joker.
    • The roofer stayed in touch, committed to the downfall of his nemesis, Mikey. One week after his initial phone call, we were on our way to raid Mikey's trite home armed with a federal search warrant. There were six of us.2001 June 1, Mark Hunter, The Powder, Their Paper and Pools of Blood, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 186
  2. A person or character who specifically brings about the downfall of another person or character, as an agent of that character's fate or destiny, especially within a narrative.
  3. The personification of the "fatal flaw" of a dramatic hero in the style of Greek tragedy.
  4. Polar opposite, especially of a literary character.
    • “And then, while he's devouring you with his stare, thinking about how much he wants to lick you up, along comes his antithesis, his polar opposite, his nemesis for want of a better word—” “Nemesis?” I interrupted, eyebrows journeying up my forehead. “—who swoops you off your feet and away from...2020 January 13, Lexxie Couper, Unconditional, Lexxie Couper, →ISBN
  5. The principle of retributive justice.
  6. (formal, singular, usually) A punishment or defeat that is deserved and cannot be avoided; (an instance of) retribution.
    • Even Nathan's close associates, who are not yet ready to declare themselves his enemies, accept that his engineered downfall will be his nemesis for harbouring ambitions beyond his status, and do nothing to alert him to the situation[…]2021 November 8, Linzy Erika Dickinson, Theatre in Balzac's La Comedie humaine, BRILL, →ISBN, page 90

Proper noun capitalized: Nemesis

Nemesis

  1. (Greek) The goddess of divine retribution.
  2. 128 Nemesis, a main belt asteroid.
  3. A hypothetical star postulated to be orbiting the Sun to explain a perceived cycle of mass extinctions in the geological record.

nemesis meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

nemesis in Tamil

வல்லெதிரி, வலிமையான எதிரி, ஊழ்வினை, சூழ்வினை, பழித்தெய்வம்

nemesis in Urdu

حریف, جزا, مکافات عمل, ناقابل شکست, پاداش عمل

nemesis in Bengali

প্রতিশোধ গ্রহণকারী, অজেয় শত্রু, অনিবার্য ধ্বংস

nemesis in Telugu

నెమెసిస్
More languagesFewer languages
nemesis in Malayalam
അധഃപതനം, അധോഗതി, പതനം, ഇടിച്ചിൽ
nemesis in Kannada
ನೆಮೆಸಿಸ್
nemesis in Punjabi
ਨੀਮੇਸਿਸ
nemesis in Odia
ନିମେସିସ

Examples of nemesis in a sentence

  • They were different in many ways but what was it about opposites attracting... […] She was his opposite, but not his nemesis, and they worked well together.2009 April 7, Paul Daffinrud, The Janitor Solves a Murder, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 16:
  • Jack took many hits to his body from his nemesis, but to his surprise he barely felt it.2020 January 30, Prince Edderson Charlton Jr, The 8 Wundas of the World: Volume One, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN, page 4:

All 17 example sentences with nemesis

Forms of nemesis

pluralnemeses

Plural of nemesis: nemeses

Origin of nemesis

From the Greek goddess of retribution Nemesis (Ancient Greek Νέμεσις (Némesis)).

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Νέμεσις (Némesis, “Nemesis, goddess of retribution”).

Words formed from nemesis

Questions about nemesis

What does nemesis mean?
Nemesis means an enemy, especially an archenemy.
What is nemesis in Tamil?
Nemesis in Tamil is வல்லெதிரி, வலிமையான எதிரி, ஊழ்வினை. See Nemesis meaning in Tamil.
How do you use nemesis in a sentence?
They were different in many ways but what was it about opposites attracting... […] She was his opposite, but not his nemesis, and they worked well together.
What part of speech is nemesis?
Nemesis can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce nemesis?
Nemesis is pronounced /ˈnɛməsɪs/.
What is the plural of nemesis?
The plural of nemesis is nemeses.

Words near nemesis in the dictionary

  1. Nemesian
  2. nemesias
  3. Nemesic
  4. nemesiid
  5. nemesiids
  6. nemesis
  7. nemestrinid
  8. nemestrinids
  9. Nemeth
  10. Nemeth Braille
  11. nemetic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nemesis (page history and authors); Nemesis (page history and authors); nemesis (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nemesis (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nemesis (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nemesis (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nemesis (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); nemesis (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nemesis (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); nemesis (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: “nemesis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nemesis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.