villainy

American  

[vil-uh-nee] / ˈvɪl ə ni /

noun

• villainies
  plural

1. the actions or conduct of a villain; outrageous wickedness.

2. a villainous act or deed.

3. Obsolete. villeinage.

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villainy British  

/ ˈvɪlənɪ /

noun

1. conduct befitting a villain; vicious behaviour or action

2. an evil, abhorrent, or criminal act or deed

3. the fact or condition of being villainous

4. English history a rare word for villeinage

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• villainies
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of villainy

1175–1225; Middle English vile ( i ) nie, vilainie < Old French. See villain, -y ³

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Explanation

Villainy is a characteristic of being evil or wicked. A movie character's villainy is what makes him the bad guy, the one the audience roots against. You might be surprised to learn of your next door neighbor's villainy — if, say, he turned out to be a bank robber. In comic books, superheroes fight against villainy, battling the villains. Villainy, in fact, comes from villain, rooted in the Medieval Latin villanus, "farmhand." A villain was once a "peasant," then a "boor" or "clown," and finally a "scoundrel."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

villainy villainies

Add to this the Manson-flavored “cult” that serves as the series’ center of villainy, and freedom of assembly begins to look less like a constitutional right than a societal liability.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

Conceived as a vehicle for several Brat Pack actors of the time including Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland, the film nonetheless belonged to Curry, who relished every line of villainy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

"Hathaway is a model of steely self-possession masking vulnerability; Pattinson bites into his character's villainy with gusto."

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

You don’t threaten such villainy if you don’t need to.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

After six hundred years of their own strife and a few centuries of Portuguese villainy, the warring tribes of Angola had finally agreed to a peace plan.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

History is all intrigues and executions, beautiful ineffectual ladies and poisoning queens, love-stories and villainies, steeped in Dickensian melodrama and embroidered with the theatrical effects of a Bleak House or an Oliver Twist.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 25, 2015

In Mr Merriman’s retelling, the Paris Commune is a reminder that the worst villainies are possible once you have dehumanised your opponent.

From Economist ● Nov. 27, 2014

“There has been a transference of villainies from the principals to the agents.”

From Salon ● Dec. 22, 2013

There was little religion but much ritual, which enraged churchmen and engaged conspiracy theorists, who still flood the Web with Masonic villainies, but it posed no problem for the Deists, who frequented the Continental Congress.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was amazed at what the documents before him revealed of the plans and villainies of old Gasper Farrington.

From Ralph on the Engine The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail by Allen Chapman

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