villain

🦹‍♂️

Meaning

1. A vile, wicked person.
2. A vile, wicked person.
3. A low-born, abject person.
4. In fiction, a character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero; an antagonist who is also evil or malevolent.
5. Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero (“the current player”).
6. Archaic form of villein (“feudal tenant, peasant, serf”).

scoundrel

wicked person

bad person

bad character

bad deed

dishonest person

backguard

strong-armer

villain’s part

suspicious fellow

despicable person

vile person

plug-ugly

evil man

horrible person

horrid person

negative character

negative role

yobo

assassin

black-guard

bad man

old fox

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈvɪl.ən/

Probably from Middle English vilein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin villanus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul. Doublet of villein.