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Added 9 October 2026

foe

/fəʊ/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about foe at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

An armed adversary (especially a member of an opposing military force).
a soldier must be prepared to kill his enemies
A personal enemy.
they had been political foes for years

Origin

From Middle English fo (“foe; hostile”), from earlier yfoh, yvo, ifa (“foe”), from Old English ġefāh (“enemy”), from fāh (“hostile”), from Proto-West Germanic *faih, from Proto-Germanic *faihaz (compare Old Frisian fāch (“punishable”), Middle High German gevēch (“feuder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk/ḱ- (“to hate, be hostile”) (compare Middle Irish óech (“enemy, fiend”), Lithuanian pi̇̀ktas (“evil”)).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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