villain
Americannoun
-
villains
plural
-
a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.
- Synonyms:
- scamp, rogue, rapscallion, rascal, knave
-
a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.
-
a person or thing considered to be the cause of something bad.
Fear is the villain that can sabotage our goals.
noun
-
a wicked or malevolent person
-
(in a novel, play, film, etc) the main evil character and antagonist to the hero
-
humorous a mischievous person; rogue
-
slang:police a criminal
-
history a variant spelling of villein
-
obsolete an uncouth person; boor
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of villain
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”; see origin at villa, -an
Explanation
A villain is a bad person — real or made up. In books, movies, current events, or history, the villain is the character who does mean, evil things on purpose. Today a villain is a wicked person, whether in fact or fiction. In the 1300s, villain described a low-born rustic. It came from the Medieval Latin word villanus, or farmhand. Just why a word would evolve from meaning farmer into evildoer is a little mysterious, although it probably has to do with farmers not being chivalrous, like the knights who were so admired in those days.
Vocabulary lists containing villain
"Black Panther" Lingo
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Superhero Lexicon
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
And in 2025, actor union Sag-Aftra filed a complaint over the use of AI to recreate the voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader in Fortnite.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Given all the suffering I’d seen, I had expected my medbed search to end with a villain.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
Paul Bettany returns as Vision, the artificially intelligent Avenger and James Spader also reprises his role as Ultron, the villain from the 2015 movie “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
When Sen. Alan Simpson quotes from “Othello” in defense of Thomas, he uses Shakespeare’s lyrical authority but fails to realize that he is in fact invoking the false words of the tragedy’s villain, Iago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Francie couldn’t understand why the heroine didn’t marry the villain.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
He has played gangsters, soldiers, policemen, politicians, patriots, villains, comic characters and tragic figures, while moving between Hindi and Marathi cinema and sometimes also working behind the camera as a director and writer.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Mr. Barnett, who has written adaptations of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” is clearly steeped in the grand tradition of fairy-tale villains getting their comeuppance without apology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The murkiness of it all clarifies by the end of the film, not just in terms of its heroes, villains and message, but Greengrass also situates this story within a recognizable cinematic and storytelling history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Tech CEOs, mimicking the villains of sci-fi, are telling the public that resistance is futile.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Were teachers as corrupt as the villains you read about in books or saw in movies and television?
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
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.
