DictionaryAI

villain

VIL-uhn/ˈvɪl.ən/

Pluralvillains

6 meanings of villain

Practice

  1. 1
    in a storynouncountable
    A character whose role in a story is to be bad, especially by opposing the hero; an antagonist who is also evil or malevolent.

    In the final scene, the detective at last confronts the villain on the rooftop.

    The actor has played so many villains that strangers sometimes boo him in the street.

    Similarantagonist

    Oppositehero, protagonist

    Note

    Not every antagonist is a villain: the antagonist is whoever stands in the hero's way, while the villain must also be bad, so a rival in a sports film can be the first without being the second. The word is at home in reviews and fan talk, from a director's choice of first villain to a group reaching "full, unambiguous movie-villain status".

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    A wicked person who deliberately does wrong or harms others, sometimes one who has committed, or is capable of, serious crimes.

    The landlord turned out to be a calculating villain who kept every tenant's deposit.

    He was no fool who blundered into fraud but a villain who planned every lie in advance.

    Similarscoundrel, rogue, crook, wrongdoer, criminal

  3. 3
    peasantnounarchaic
    Archaic form of villein: a medieval peasant legally bound to a lord's estate and owing him labor.
    Note

    Villain and villein are one word that split in two, doublets from the same Old French vilein, and older writers used either spelling for the feudal tenant. Modern English keeps them apart, villein for the serf and villain for everything else, so a villain in an old history of the manor is usually a peasant bound to the land, not a wrongdoer.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    class insultnounderogatoryarchaic
    A low-born, contemptible person.
    Note the preſumption of this Scythian ſlaue: I tel thee villaine, thoſe that lead my horſe Haue to their names tytles of dignitie, And dar’ſt thou bluntly cal me Baiazeth?
    c. 1587, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part
    Note

    Here the insult is about rank, not morals: to call someone a villain was to put them in their place as low-born, the older use behind the wicked sense. In Marlowe's Tamburlaine the insult comes with its reason attached: "I tell thee, villain, those that lead my horse have to their names titles of dignity." Used this way, it is a sneer at birth, not a charge of crime.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The historical insult could express contempt for low social rank. gutenberg.org
    • The social insult preceded the developed wicked-person sense. en.wikipedia.org
    • Christopher Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine. gutenberg.org
    • The quotation occurs in Tamburlaine, Part I; Bajazeth addresses Tamburlaine, invoking differences in rank. gutenberg.org
    • Historical texts also use villain for a wrongdoer. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, uses it of his own intended wickedness in Shakespeare's Richard III; context determines the sense. en.wikisource.org
  2. 5
    noun
    In poker, any opposing player, especially a hypothetical one used in examples and teaching, as distinct from the hero, the player being discussed.
  3. 6
    verbobsolete
    To debase or degrade.

Practice

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Origin

Villain probably comes from Middle English vilein, which came from Old French vilein (vilain in modern French). The earlier source is Late Latin vīllānus, a word for a serf or peasant tied to an estate’s land. These large country estates, called vīllae (singular vīlla) in Latin, existed in Italy or Gaul during late Antiquity. Villain and villein are doublets.