antihero
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of antihero
Explanation
An antihero is the main character of a story, but one who doesn't act like a typical hero. Antiheroes are often a little villainous. Traditionally, the protagonist — main character and focus — of a story has been a hero: someone good, noble, and brave. However, some stories change things up by having an antihero instead. An antihero may not be heroic at all. TV shows have featured antiheroes who are mobsters, drug dealers, crooked cops, and even serial killers. An antihero is kind of like a villain, or a mix of a hero and a villain. Antiheroes are complex characters, which is why they’re popular.
Vocabulary lists containing antihero
Power Prefix: Anti
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: ant-, anti-
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Prefixes: anti-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Bardem’s villain is built more like an aughts-edition antihero.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
Wolverine’s clash with Magneto, the perennial antihero, left him severely injured, physically and mentally.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Turning Robin Hood into a conflicted antihero suggests society has been infiltrated by cynicism about anyone being able to save us.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Rice’s readers might not have been quite so queasy about this; her antihero has a way of making many horrors palatable.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Anthony Geary, who played the charming antihero Luke Spencer on ABC’s “General Hospital,” will make his last appearance on the soap opera on Monday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
Now private-equity executives fill the roles of villains or antiheroes in shows like Billions and Succession, the latter providing this bit: “You know how, like, everyone hates you?”
From Barron's ● Dec. 5, 2025
The original NWO, which consisted of “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, were so bad they became antiheroes and immensely popular.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2025
He was to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, reportedly as Sentry, one of the most powerful antiheroes in all of Marvel, in “Thunderbolts,” but backed out — by email.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
In place of demigods and antiheroes, women were his preferred orbit.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2023
Nuanced antiheroes were not this show’s jam, and never did dark doings define the day.
From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2023
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
