villainy
Americannoun
plural
villainies-
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
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.
Red herrings pop up and disappear, a climactic series of revelations indicates hidden villainy, and every detail feels ho-hum.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 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
Parrilla finds the balance between Bruiser’s sauciness and seriousness; Byrne plays the clown adeptly; and Slattery, a boss again after “Mad Men,” softens his villainy with some Roger Sterling insouciance.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 14, 2025
Raúl Esparza, whom I can still hear singing “Being Alive” from the 2006 Broadway revival of “Company,” played Pontius Pilate with lip-smacking villainy.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 4, 2025
After six hundred years of their own strife and a few centuries of Portuguese villainy, the warring tribes of Angola had finally agreed to a peace plan.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
