villain

[ vil-uhn ]

noun

1. a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.

   Synonyms: scamp, rogue, rapscallion, rascal, knave

2. a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.
3. a person or thing considered to be the cause of something bad:

   Fear is the villain that can sabotage our goals.

4. villein.

villain

/ ˈvɪlən /

noun

1. a wicked or malevolent person
2. (in a novel, play, film, etc) the main evil character and antagonist to the hero
3. humorous.
   a mischievous person; rogue
4. slang:police.
   a criminal
5. history a variant spelling of villein
6. obsolete.
   an uncouth person; boor

Derived Forms

• ˈvillainess, noun:feminine

Other Words From

• sub·villain noun
• under·villain noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of villain¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English vilein, vilain “churlish rustic, serf,” from Middle French, from Vulgar Latin and Medieval Latin villānus “a farm servant, farmhand”; villa, -an

Word History and Origins

Origin of villain¹

C14: from Old French vilein serf, from Late Latin vīllānus worker on a country estate, from Latin: villa

Example Sentences

In film and television, Nazis, historic and contemporary, remain the ultimate villain, but we really love to hate the British Bad Guy.

From Los Angeles Times

Once the harassment campaign started to get more national attention, thousands of feminists logged on to defend the targets, flooding Twitter with memes and counterarguments that recognized the true villains as the Gamergaters themselves.

From Salon

But it was missing something — a clear, motivated villain.

From Los Angeles Times

He is forced to pursue a mysterious villain after being blackmailed into allowing a potentially dangerous package on board a Christmas Eve flight.

From BBC

"Everyone is a villain. There are no heroes here," concludes Mr Akinosho.

From BBC

Related Words

• antihero
• bad guy
• baddie
• baddy
• criminal
• devil
• scoundrel
• sinner