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Synonyms

villain

American  
[vil-uhn] / ˈvɪl ən /

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 British  
/ 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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • subvillain noun
  • undervillain noun
  • villainess noun

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”; villa, -an

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.

And the 5ft 9in southpaw said she is ready to draw on the experience of being the pantomime villain.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

As Mr. Clark tells us, an allegation against the pastors was set in motion in 1835 by Count Finck von Finckenstein, a nasty moral scold and the villain of the story.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

Characters are caricatures, be it a villain that feels plucked from a cartoon western, complete with a purring raccoon for a sidekick, to a greedy wannabe politician of a bank manager.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2026

On this week’s Slate Plus exclusive, Timothée Chalamet enters the pas de deux between an Oscar-nominated actor and a public itching for a villain.

From Slate • Mar. 13, 2026

She can’t be the villain if she’s the victim.

From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman

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.