Ranking Different Types Of Friends

What does “frenemy” mean in English?

“Frenemy” joins the words “friend” and “enemy.” It means a person who acts like your friend but is also someone you compete with or do not fully trust. In this clip, the speaker ranks types of friends. About the frenemy, he says: “Those just never work out.” The word is informal and a bit playful, but the feeling is real — someone who seems friendly but there is a quiet bad feeling under it.

“Frenemy” is made by joining two words into one. English has many words like this: brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), and blog (web + log). It is informal, so people use it in chat, on social media, and in TV and films, but not in formal writing. The plural is frenemies. Many cultures know this kind of person, and the English word is now in big dictionaries like Merriam-Webster and Cambridge.