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.
Rapp played central villainess Regina George, reprising a role she originated on Broadway, and spent the press tour gleefully going off script.
From BBC • Jul. 24, 2025
“First Kill” is an origin story, going back to when the villainess Leena Klammer escaped from an Estonian mental hospital and passed herself off as Esther Albright, the long-missing daughter of a wealthy American family.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2022
She’s not evil, it’s this archetype that chases her: the deadly villainess, the villain behind the man.
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 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
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
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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.