antihero
Americannoun
plural
antiheroesnoun
Other Word Forms
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.
But Potter, who struggled with unchecked mental illness, depicted himself as an antihero outsider with a spiritual connection to the ravens of Yosemite, and could also be juvenile, selfish and oblivious.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026
He refuses to characterize Laxman as a seductive antihero, perhaps on the moral grounds of not wanting to make such a man seem attractive.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026
Composer Bernard Herrmann’s score, his last, is alternately mellow and roiling, befitting its placid but simmering antihero.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026
Park stages Man-su’s homicide attempts as slapstick set pieces in which our clumsy antihero himself barely gets out alive.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 6, 2026
Gilligan also created “Pluribus” as a counterweight to the antihero era he helped define by contributing two unforgettable linchpins, Walter White and Saul Goodman.
From Salon • Nov. 26, 2025
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.
