villainess
Americannoun
Gender
See -ess.
Etymology
Origin of villainess
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.
The pair tease me by saying she's the new villainess but it's left unclear whether she will have a role in the new films.
From BBC • Aug. 29, 2025
There were lines to meet the Emmy winner Bonnie Bartlett, 92, who played Barbara Thorndyke, a fan-favorite villainess in a single third-season episode.
From New York Times • May 4, 2022
But the infernal Agni knows, as does any reader familiar with “The Ramayana”: Kaikeyi is destined to play a villainess in the great game of gods and mortals.
From Washington Post • Apr. 26, 2022
In another ambivalent characterization, the newlywed Linnet Ridgeway, who in the book trod a fine line between sympathetic and spoiled, now ricochets between heroine and villainess.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 11, 2022
There was a villainess, also in love with the handsome young minister, and out to get the heroine.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
