Synonyms for foe
foʊfoe

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. foe

   An enemy in private life is one who is moved by hostile feeling with active disposition to injure; but in military language all who fight on the opposite side are called enemies or collectively "the enemy," where no personal animosity may be implied; foe, which is rather a poetical and literary word, implies intensely hostile spirit and purpose. An antagonist is one who opposes and is opposed actively and with intensity of effort; an opponent, one in whom the attitude of resistance is the more prominent; a competitor, one who seeks the same object for which another is striving; antagonists in wrestling, competitors in business, opponents in debate may contend with no personal ill will; rivals in love, ambition, etc., rarely avoid inimical feeling. Adversary was formerly much used in the general sense of antagonist or opponent, but is now less common, and largely restricted to the hostile sense; an adversary is ordinarily one who not only opposes another in fact, but does so with hostile spirit, or perhaps out of pure malignity; as, the great Adversary. Compare synonyms for AMBITION.

   Synonyms:
   adversary, antagonist, competitor, enemy, opponent, rival

   Antonyms:
   abettor, accessory, accomplice, ally, friend, helper, supporter

   Preposition:
   He was the enemy of my friend in the contest.

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. enemy, foe, foeman, oppositionnoun

   an armed adversary (especially a member of an opposing military force)

   "a soldier must be prepared to kill his enemies"

   Synonyms:
   resistance, foeman, oppositeness, opposite, enemy, confrontation, opposition, opponent

   Antonyms:
   ally, friend

2. foe, enemynoun

   a personal enemy

   "they had been political foes for years"

   Synonyms:
   opposition, foeman, enemy

   Antonyms:
   ally, friend

Matched Categories

1. • Adversary
   • Military

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. foenoun

   Synonyms:
   enemy, adversary, opponent, antagonist, FOEMAN

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:3.0 / 1 vote

1. foenoun

   Synonyms:
   antagonist, enemy, adversary, opponent

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:5.0 / 2 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "foe":

   enemy, enemies, adversary, opponent

Suggested Resources

1. FOE

   What does FOE stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the FOE acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

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How to use foe in a sentence?

1. President Trump:

   This weekend two right-wing groups sought to hold peaceful rallies. Their leaders — Patriot Prayer’s Joey Gibson, a Japanese-American, andAmber Cummings, a transgender President Trump supporter — explicitly denounced racism. Amid fears of violence, both cancelled their events. Antifa showed up anyway, outnumbering and terrorizing any right-wingers or President Trump supporters who dared show their faces. Antifa views President Trump as fundamentally reactionary, as a necessary opposition to corrosive ideologies. But because your foe is a really bad guy does n’t mean you’re inherently a good one. Movements are defined not merely by what they oppose but by what they do. Antifa’s censorious criminality resembles the very political behavior it claims to fight. The mainstream left ought to denounce it as much as the right should reject white supremacists.

2. R Chamberlain:

   There is not half so much danger in the desperate sword of a known foe as in the smooth insinuations of a pretended friend.

3. John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

   Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

4. Mo Brooks:

   If you're talking about mainstream fake news media at the national level, of course, they want a socialist. And I'm definitely not a socialist, they consider me very much a foe of their political ideology. Likewise, I consider them very much a foe of conservative principles that made us America. So we're at odds.

5. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall:

   Because he isn't arguing with allies about policy. He's questioning the fundamental value of NATO to the United States. This antagonistic approach is generating an unprecedented debate in Europe and in Canada about whether the United States should be treated as friend or foe.