villainize
Americanverb (used with object)
Usage
What does villainize mean? To villainize someone is to speak about them negatively or portray them in a negative way, especially to influence others to see them as a bad person. Most often, it is individual people who are villainized, typically by someone who says bad things about them (especially things that are exaggerated). However, groups and other things can also be villainized. Example: Mary tried to villainize Joe before the student council election by telling everyone that he had been rude to her after the debate.
Etymology
Origin of villainize
First recorded in 1620–30; villain ( def. ) + -ize ( def. )
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:
We’ve been taught to fetishize our suffering and villainize our joy — that working toward a long-term goal should feel like work.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 27, 2026
When “Yellowstone,” Sheridan’s first show, premiered in 2018, #MeToo was reverberating across television with producers waffling over whether to villainize or defend macho characters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Yet, remarkably, they don’t villainize these figures who, no matter how hard they try, can’t seem to say the right thing.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2025
“When it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2024
“No. They probably would villainize you to justify it.”
From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas
These feelings have morphed into, as I’ve heard it, “showing empathy for categories of people who are marginalized and villainized and did nothing to bring it on themselves.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
On a human level, how does it feel to be so villainized?
From Salon ● May 15, 2025
If television villainized us, why shouldn’t our enemies?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
But it’s important to note that not all cultures villainized menstruation, Clancy says.
From National Geographic ● Nov. 29, 2023
“We’re not only being tasked with taking this on, but we’re villainized for speaking up,” Castro said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2023
I mean, I want us to get back to kindness, get back to respecting one another, instead of villainizing anyone who you think doesn’t agree with you.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2025
Figgener fears the public also became too focused on villainizing straws, rather than looking at plastic production itself as the problem.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 12, 2023
The Corporation is just like all the giant conglomerates villainizing contemporary narratives, from Dave Eggers’ “The Circle” to “Silicon Valley’s” Hooli to “WALL-E’s” Buy n Large to “Severance’s” Lumon Industries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2023
They also dismissed independent bloggers and critics whom they perceive as having come to prominence simply by villainizing the entire space.
From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2023
“Nobody is villainizing the county” for property tax increases, he said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
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.
