nemesis
n.a person or thing that is a constant enemy or a very difficult problem to overcome. It often feels like they are specifically designed to defeat you.
n.a persistent rival or formidable opponent who is seemingly impossible to defeat. Often carries a connotation of inescapable retribution or poetic justice.
“The local champion finally met his nemesis in the final match.”
“Public speaking had always been her professional nemesis, preventing her from seeking the promotions she deserved.”
“In classical literature, the protagonist's downfall is frequently orchestrated by a nemesis who embodies the very flaws the hero refused to acknowledge during their rise to power.”
Often used with the possessive ('my nemesis', 'his nemesis') to indicate a personal and long-standing rivalry.
“Miss Lemon – Lydia’s arch nemesis with whom she has an entertaining feud – receives a prize designed to play havoc with her lactose intolerance.”
“Every New Year’s Day, Lily wakes up in a new century, trying to navigate first love, avoid her ever-present nemesis, and cope with life without chicken nuggets.”
Nemesis kept the balance of the world. She was the divine measurer of fortune, the goddess who saw to it that no one rose too high or grew too proud without answering for it.
She was not cruel for cruelty's sake. Her anger fell on those who had it coming: the boastful, the arrogant, the man swollen with good luck he had done nothing to earn, the winner who forgot he was mortal. Where Fortune handed out blessings without weighing them, Nemesis came behind to set the scales right again.
They pictured her with a measuring rod and sometimes a wheel, and she moved without haste and without mercy. You could not bargain with her, outrun her, or buy her off. If you had climbed by pride or prospered by injustice, she would find you, and she would bring you down to your proper level, however long it took.
She was, in short, the reckoning that arrogance cannot escape, the one adversary a proud man makes simply by being proud.
Her name comes down to us as nemesis: an inescapable agent of someone's downfall, a rival or a force that at last brings the mighty low. When we say a hero has finally met their nemesis, we mean they have met the undoing that was always coming for them.
Original etymology written by Shinotoshi Nakamura.
Expressions the ancient Greek myths left in everyday English.
- 01
a Herculean task (idiom)
A task requiring enormous strength, effort, or determination to complete.
- 02
a Pyrrhic victory (idiom)
A win that costs so much it feels almost like a defeat.
- 03
a Sisyphean task (idiom)
A task that is endless and futile, because it must be repeated forever without ever being finished.
- 04
Achilles' heel (idiom)
A single hidden weakness in someone or something otherwise strong.
- 05
Ariadne's thread (idiom)
A method or clue that guides you safely through a confusing, complicated problem.
- 06
atlas (word)
a book of maps or a collection of charts; it can also refer to a specific bone in your neck or a figure from Greek mythology.