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Definition of "villain" []

  • A wicked or evil person; a scoundrel. (noun)
  • A dramatic or fictional character who is typically at odds with the hero. (noun)
  • Variant of villein. (noun)
  • Something said to be the cause of particular trouble or an evil: poverty, the villain in the increase of crime. (noun)
  • Obsolete A peasant regarded as vile and brutish. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "villain" in a sentence
  • "Their main villain is a criminal who was teleported with them and thus has the same powers as them."
  • "Jensen Ackles brings a suitable cocky menace to the title villain, but he too sounds a bit like a Will Friedle, who played a protege of the elder Bruce Wayne in the futuristic Batman Beyond."
  • "The main villain is the trickster Coyote in Southwestern Native American (and Norse) myths, and other supernatural characters come from Native American legends."