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

Other Word Forms

• subvillain noun
• undervillain noun
• villainess 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

He has survived multiple damaging scandals and found his way back to power every time, like a wily Renaissance courtier or an unkillable horror-movie villain, and may well survive this one.

Read more on Salon

"I think it comes from TV shows and anime where you have characters with a villain arc," says Dani.

Read more on BBC

With rare exceptions, bosses typically stand in as the villains in workplace movies and are often portrayed as manipulative, hard-driving taskmasters.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He wanted to make it clear Vecna was “a character that is mostly powerful with his mind, that really resonates as a villain,” he said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

We learned Eleven essentially created the villain herself, having used her powers to send Henry Creel tumbling through dimensions.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• antihero 
• bad guy 
• baddie 
• baddy www.thesaurus.com
• criminal 
• devil 
• scoundrel 
• sinner