亦敵亦友

简 亦敌亦友 · 繁 亦敵亦友
Mandarin · pinyin yì dí yì yǒu

Meanings

  1. (idiom) to be both friend and foe to each other; to have a friendly rivalry
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Characters in this entry

亦
yì · also, too; likewise
敵
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友
yǒu · friend, companion; fraternity
敌
dí · enemy, foe, rival; resist
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2–4–3 · yi4 di2 yi4 you3

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

亦敵亦友 · find source passages ↗ · 亦敌亦友 · find source passages ↗

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亦敵亦友 · yi4 di2 yi4 you3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 5,543
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record亦敵亦友 亦敌亦友 [yi4 di2 yi4 you3] /(idiom) to be both friend and foe to each other; to have a friendly rivalry/