villainy
Americannoun
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the actions or conduct of a villain; outrageous wickedness.
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a villainous act or deed.
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Obsolete. villeinage.
noun
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conduct befitting a villain; vicious behaviour or action
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an evil, abhorrent, or criminal act or deed
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the fact or condition of being villainous
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English history a rare word for villeinage
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of villainy
1175–1225; Middle English vile ( i ) nie, vilainie < Old French. See villain, -y 3
Explanation
Villainy is a characteristic of being evil or wicked. A movie character's villainy is what makes him the bad guy, the one the audience roots against. You might be surprised to learn of your next door neighbor's villainy — if, say, he turned out to be a bank robber. In comic books, superheroes fight against villainy, battling the villains. Villainy, in fact, comes from villain, rooted in the Medieval Latin villanus, "farmhand." A villain was once a "peasant," then a "boor" or "clown," and finally a "scoundrel."
Vocabulary lists containing villainy
"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 1
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Flora and Ulysses
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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:
"Hathaway is a model of steely self-possession masking vulnerability; Pattinson bites into his character's villainy with gusto."
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
His Othello is hounded into a betrayal of his probity and hard-earned honor not just by the villainy of Iago but by the demons of his past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Tanja Ariane Baumgartner was a fascinating Kundry, her superficial villainy barely concealing her longing for redemption.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
That theme eventually smooths the unjust twists in a case propelled by preconceived notions and a hunger for villainy that boosts ratings and magazine circulations.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2025
These men have been caught halfway through their transformation: ordinary bodies but with powerful, supernatural heads, deformed in the direction of heroism, or villainy.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
History is all intrigues and executions, beautiful ineffectual ladies and poisoning queens, love-stories and villainies, steeped in Dickensian melodrama and embroidered with the theatrical effects of a Bleak House or an Oliver Twist.
From The New Yorker ● Feb. 25, 2015
In Mr Merriman’s retelling, the Paris Commune is a reminder that the worst villainies are possible once you have dehumanised your opponent.
From Economist ● Nov. 27, 2014
“There has been a transference of villainies from the principals to the agents.”
From Salon ● Dec. 22, 2013
Warner Bros., with no grudge at all against lawyers, are constrained to angle the picture's villainies some other way.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Junia constructed more of Flaccus' villainies than Flaccus himself!"
From Saul of Tarsus A Tale of the Early Christians by Miller, Elizabeth
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.
