Word.ws English Dictionary

villainous

/ˈvɪlənəs/

villainous adjective: of, relating to, or appropriate to a villain.

Adjective

villainous (comparative more villainous, superlative most villainous)

  1. Of, relating to, or appropriate to a villain.
  2. Wicked, offensive, or reprehensible in nature or behaviour; nefarious.
    • Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and...1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III
    • Bah! to this toilet for the villainous boredom of church.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 9

villainous meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Punjabi

villainous in Tamil

போக்கிரித்தனமான

villainous in Urdu

خبیث, مفسد, شریر

villainous in Malayalam

ഹീനനായ, ദ്രോഹിയായ, നിന്ദ്യമായ

villainous in Punjabi

villainous, wicked
ਲਫ਼ੰਗਾ lafaṅgā
villainous, wicked, vicious, roguish
ਸ਼ੈਤਾਨ śaitān
More languagesFewer languages
villainous in Arabic
شِرِّير širrīr

Synonyms of villainous

Forms of villainous

comparativemore villainous
superlativemost villainous
alternative form (obsolete)villanous

Origin of villainous

From Middle English vileinous, from Old French vileneus. By surface analysis, villain + -ous.

Words formed from villainous

Questions about villainous

What does villainous mean?
Villainous means of, relating to, or appropriate to a villain.
What is villainous in Tamil?
Villainous in Tamil is போக்கிரித்தனமான. See Villainous meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is villainous?
Villainous is an adjective.
How do you pronounce villainous?
Villainous is pronounced /ˈvɪlənəs/.

Words near villainous in the dictionary

  1. villainizer
  2. villainizers
  3. villainizes
  4. villainizing
  5. villainly
  6. villainous
  7. villainously
  8. villainousness
  9. villainry
  10. villains
  11. villains of the week

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: villainous (page history and authors); villainous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); villainous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); villainous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਲਫ਼ੰਗਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-villainous.wav.

Cite this entry: “villainous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/villainous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.